NCC: Why Some SIM Cards Previously Linked to NIN Were Barred

•Lawyer files N10bn suit against NCC, MTN, others

Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Wale Igbintade in Lagos

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday explained why some telecommunications subscribers who previously linked their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards to their National Identification Numbers (NINs) still had their mobile lines barred.

NCC spokesman, Reuben Muoka, said “people who probably didn’t get a cleared or verified NIN” have been barred because “the earlier ones they submitted was not good”.

Muoka, who was on a television programme monitored by THISDAY said some SIM cards had verification and identification issues, including disparity in information, names and other data.

“There are still some subscribers whose NINs are yet to be verified by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and those have to also be corrected,” he said.

Many subscribers had complained that they had previously linked their NIN with their SIM cards years ago, but the NCC official said some lines were barred because the information on the NIN did not tally with what the customers registered with their SIM cards.

He said subscribers will have to visit the outlets of their service providers to validate their NINs and resolve other matters.

“For now, it requires those physical visits to the stations to get it verified and validated but in the future, we hope that this will be done virtually,” the NCC spokesman said.

The NCC had last week issued a directive to telecoms service providers to bar subscribers who have failed to link their phone numbers to their NIN on or before February 28, 2024.

As of December 2023, Nigeria had over 224 million, according to data from the NCC, with MTN boasting over 87 million subscribers, representing 38.79 per cent of the total market share, the highest in the country by any licensed Mobile Network Operator (MNO).

Globacom and Airtel had 61 million subscribers each, while 9mobile had 13.9 million users.

Millions of lines were barred last week at the expiration of the deadline, but the regulator’s spokesman said the NCC had been going through one deadline after the other since 2022 “to give extension for convenience but it is time to get to a closure”.

He added: “Take it that everybody who has not submitted his NIN to the service providers has been barred. Actually, the service providers started barring people many days to the deadline,” he explained.

Muoka, however, said it will be difficult to tell the actual number of phone lines that had been barred, but that the NCC will do an audit before the end of the week as data is expected from service providers.

He said the NIN-SIM linkage has an objective to make Nigerians have digital identity to tackle security matters.

“The whole essence is actually to achieve the convenience that digital services and products will offer. By the time you have your identity together, you will be able to attend to a number of things.

“Even the banks are now asking their customers to link their NINs to their Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs). It is actually to make a holistic package of all your digital services,” he stated.

Meanwhile, a Lagos-based lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, has filed a N10 billion suit before the Federal High Court in Lagos against the NCC and its Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Aminu Maida, over alleged inconvenience, discomfort, injury and loss of business opportunities by Nigerians caused by the blocking of lines not linked to the NIN.

In the suit marked FHC/L/CS/363/2024, Ogungbeje, asked for an order compelling the respondents to jointly and severally tender public apology to the applicant and other affected Nigerian citizens.

Other respondents in the suit were MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, Airtel Networks Nigeria Limited, Globacom Limited, and Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Limited (EMTS), 9Mobile.

The court had on February 22, 2024, granted an order restraining the respondents from barring, deactivating and or restricting any phone lines/sim cards of the applicant and Nigeria citizens.

But the NCC directed the telecommunications providers to bar telephone subscribers not linked to NIN on or before February 28, 2024.

The NCC which said it was not part of the suit filed by the applicant reiterated that the February 28 deadline given to telecom operators to bar subscribers who failed to link their sims to NIN, stood.

Ogungbeje is asking for a declaration that the act and action or further barring, restricting and deactivating of the applicant’s phone lines/sim cards was wrongful, illegal, unlawful and undemocratic, unconstitutional.

He is therefore seeking an order setting aside the entire directive and all its consequential effects in connection with the subject matter, having been made in gross violation of a valid and subsisting order of court granted against the respondents.

He is also asking for “An order compelling the respondents to jointly and severally to immediately activate, debar, unblock and un-restrict the applicant’s phone lines/Sim cards and that of the affected Nigerian citizens forthwith.”