NIN: MTN Nigeria announces date for total barring of phone lines

MTN Nigeria says it will completely disconnect customers who have not complied with Nigeria’s new national identity requirements.

This decision follows the directive issued by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in April 2022, mandating telecom operators to restrict outgoing calls for subscribers whose SIM cards are not linked with their national identity numbers (NINs).

Until now, phone companies in Nigeria only barred users from making calls, allowed incoming calls and messages. MTN said it has received a new directive from the NCC to implement full network barring from February.

“This is part of an industry-wide directive that requires phone lines for which the subscribers have not submitted their NINs to be barred on or before 28 February 2024,” MTN said in a regulatory notice on Monday.

“With regard to NINs that have been submitted but not verified, such lines are to be barred on or before 29 March 2024, where five or more lines are linked to an unverified NIN.”

The company said for cases where less than five lines are linked to an unverified NIN, such lines are to be barred on or before 15 April 2024.

All affected subscribers must be verified (biometrics and biodata) before their lines are unbarred.

MTN says it is engaging the affected subscribers through all its channels to encourage them to submit their NINs for verification.

“As part of these efforts, we are enhancing the capacity of our various service outlets to make the process smoother and more efficient. We are committed to ensuring that our subscribers comply with the NCC directive and will continue to work with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to accelerate the NIN verification process,” it said.

Sometimes Rocky

The South African-headquartered MTN is Nigeria’s largest carrier, with of the market share, with over 70 million subscribers. But the company has had a sometimes rocky relationship with the Nigerian government

In 2015, the NCC slapped it with a staggering $5.2 billion fine for failing to disconnect unregistered SIM cards.

As of May 2022, the company said it had disconnected 19 million lines following the government’s instruction.

MTN began operations in Nigeria in August 2001.