The news:
- Concerns have arisen as several telco subscribers, especially MTN Nigeria users, reported on X over the weekend that their SIM cards were blocked despite having submitted the required National Identification Numbers (NIN).
- Per the order issued by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), all telecom operators in Nigeria are to disconnect linked numbers with unverified NINs by July 31, 2024. However, there is speculation that MTN acted prematurely.
- Some users have alleged that telcos are conspiring with the Federal Government to disrupt the nationwide protest scheduled for August 1. But, the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has dismissed these claims as baseless.
While MTN shared how affected customers can reconnect their lines, Techpoint Africa spoke to some subscribers who claimed that when they called MTN customer care to ascertain why their lines were disconnected, they were asked to visit the nearest MTN store.
However, Airtel Africa, a telecom and mobile money provider in 14 African countries, said the ongoing NIN verification of its Nigerian customers could cost the group up to $4 million in monthly revenue.
Disclosing the new development in its financial results for Q2 2024, which ended June 30, 2024, the company said it hasn’t been able to verify the NIN of about 4.9 million customers despite the extended deadline of July 31, 2024.
Sunil Taldar, Airtel Africa CEO, stated that the Nigerian telecom subsidiary has maintained compliance with all regulatory directives, including restricting SIMs unlinked with the subscribers’ NINs.
“Currently we are engaging with approximately 4.9 million customers whose NINs are yet to be verified, with approximately $3 million-$4 million of monthly revenue at risk,” Taldar added.
8.7 million customers have already been verified since the directive came in December 2023, Airtel claimed.
The telco noted that it’ll continue to work closely with the regulators to accelerate the verification process to minimise customer inconvenience and reduce the revenue impact on the company.
Recall that in December 2023, as part of the ongoing Federal Government NIN-SIM harmonisation exercise, the communications regulator directed all telecom service providers to block all SIMs unlinked to their NIN by February 28, 2024.
In the same vein, customers who have submitted their NINs but have yet to be verified were slated to be barred on April 15, 2024. However, the deadline was moved to July 31, 2024.
Additionally, March 29, 2024, was announced as the date for barring excess SIMS, following NCC guidelines that prohibited one customer from having more than 4 active SIMs.
As of March 2024, MTN announced that it had restricted about 4.2 million SIMs yet to submit their NIN by February 28, 2024, in line with the same guidelines directive. In January 2024, active subscriptions across MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile had declined by more than 6 million following the ongoing SIM disconnection.
