About 65 million phone lines may be disconnected again following the expiration of the deadline for telecom subscribers to link their National Identification (NIN) Number to their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM).
According to a guideline released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the final deadline for SIM-NIN linkage expired on September 14, 2024.
Analysis done by the Punch suggests that approximately 65 million lines remain at risk, as an estimated one million lines could not have been linked between the NCC’s deadline announcement and the actual cut-off date.
The telecom regulator’s data from March 2024 shows there were 219 million active lines across major networks such as MTN, Glo, Airtel, and 9mobile, with 153 million linked to NINs.
This means that about 66 million lines were yet to be linked to NIN after the NCC’s deadline announcement.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo, discarded the idea of a deadline extension and confirmed to The PUNCH on Monday that the disconnection process is already ongoing.
“It’s difficult to provide exact numbers for the lines disconnected so far, but it’s certainly less than 66 million because, even on the day of the deadline, people were still linking their SIMs,” Adebayo said.
He affirmed that mobile operators were adhering to the NCC’s directives, describing the deadline as “acceptable and reasonable.”
Adebayo urged subscribers to comply, stating, “We can’t keep extending deadlines and going back and forth on this issue. This is a national concern, and these data are critical for national development.”
However, the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers urged the NCC to extend the deadline.
Speaking with The PUNCH, the President of the association appealed to the NCC to push the deadline to September 22, allowing customer experience centres to operate over the weekend.
He said this would enable subscribers to resolve any registration issues on the NIN portal and avoid potential disruptions to telecom services.
“Given the NIN portal’s technical glitches that persisted for almost a week earlier, and the improvements made last week, it’s only fair that the NCC allows subscribers to make up for the lost time. This extension will provide a much-needed buffer for subscribers to resolve any registration issues,” he said.
