Posted by Nigerian telecom operators set February 28, 2024, as the cutoff date for disconnecting Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) that aren’t linked to a national identity number.
The Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, exclusively verified this to Janescope on Tuesday.
As per his statement, the Nigerian Communications Commission, which oversees telecom regulations in the nation, issued the decision to deactivate SIM cards that are not connected to NIN.
The impact, he clarified, is that SIMs that are not connected to NIN will be deleted for subscribers of Nigeria’s mobile network operators, such as MTN, Airtel, and Globacom.
It is implied that individuals whose SIM cards are not connected to their National Identity Number or whose connections have been made but are awaiting verification must take action to avoid being disconnected.
It is not our decision, as you are aware; according to the press release, the Nigerian Communication Commission ordered us to stop providing the service. All that needs to be followed is the regulatory directive. The number of active users on the networks worries us about the directive, but since it’s a government order, all we can do is advise them to follow it,” he told Janescope.
The federal government set multiple NIN-SIM linking deadlines, which prompted the development.
Remember that the SIM-NIN Linkage regulation was implemented by the federal government in December 2020 in an effort to reduce insecurity and preserve sanity in the telecom industry.
As of August 2023, NCC reports that there were 220,715,961 million telecom users in Nigeria.