SIM-NIN Connection: 12m Lines At Risk As NCC Shuns Deadline Extension

• Telecos back NCC on national security

BY EDMOND ODOK – Following the February 28, 2024 deadline expiration, the National Communications Commission (NCC) says there is no cheering news for erring telephone subscribers not linked to their National Identification Numbers (NINs).

In activating the NCC’s directive, hard times now await defaulting customers with telecommunication companies flagging off massive operations to disconnect and bar them from their respective networks.

Confirmed sources said with the NCC not ready to extending the deadline for linking Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards to National Identification Numbers (NINs), over 12 million lines are now at risk of being deactivated nationwide.

This is as the telecom operators said they are firmly behind the NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, Dr Aminu Maida’s position that it is a matter of critical national security for all telecom consumers to have proper linkage between their SIM cards and NINs.

Maida, while promoting NCC’s Special Day at the ongoing 45th Kaduna International Trade Fair, said the Commission will not back down on the February 28th deadline barring subscribers who failed to link their NINs to SIMs.

Represented by Reuben Mouka, the Commission’s Director of Public Affairs at the event, Maida said NCC will no longer tolerate abuses and actions in the industry capable of undermining and compromising national security.

According to him; “As a regulator of the telecommunications sector in the country, the Commission carries out its functions to ensure service availability, affordability, and sustainability for all categories of consumers, who are leveraging ICT/Telecoms to drive personal and business activities.

“Conversely, as we promote economic growth through the development of local content, we must also address the challenges faced by consumers and NCC is committed to protecting their rights while ensuring their satisfaction”.

Specifically affirming NCC’s stance, Mouka said; “We already issued a public notice in this regard and all the information. If there was an extension, NCC would have communicated that. But as far as I know, there is no extension.”

The Commission, had in a notice issued in December 2023, directed telcom operators to bar SIMs that are not been linked to their owners’ NINs by February 28, 2024.

Similarly, the Global Satellite Mobile Communications firms were directed to disconnect all those whose NINs have been submitted but not verified by March 29, 2024; and interdict those who have less than five lines linked to an unverified NIN by April 15, 2024.

Backing the NCC’s directive, Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, assured that its members are ready to comply, noting that out of the 224 million active lines, about 12m lines now face the risk of being deactivated

Also hinting that “About 12 million SIM cards may not have been linked to NIN”, the ALTON Chair said; “Some of these SIM cards work on modems and mifi devices. According to the regulatory directives, those numbers that are not properly linked to NIN will have services withdrawn to them. . We stand by that regulatory directive and we are going to comply,”

However, stressing that the deadline should have been implemented last year, Adebayo said; “No, the regulator (NCC) has made it clear that there won’t be any further extension. Let us remember that this ought to have happened last year, but it was extended by the regulator till the 28th of February, 2024.”

Available data showed that since the order to suspend all SIM cards without NIN first came out on December 15, 2020, the country has recorded rapid growth in the number of people who have so far obtained their NINs.

NCC said between that period and the second deadline date of January 19, 2021, over 47.8 million new submissions from active subscribers were recorded by Nigerian mobile operators.