NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) has ordered all telecos in the country to block subscriber identity module (SIM) cards that are not registered with the National Identity Numbers (NIN) within two weeks, although the ultimatum has been extended to February 2021 according to some sources.
It warned that any telecom operators that failed to comply with the directive risked withdrawal of its licence or heavy penalty, This was the resolution reached at a meeting between the minister of communication and digital economy and stakeholders in the communication industry on Monday.
The Federal Government last week ordered the suspension of new SIM registration by operators to allow an auditing of duly registered SIM cards, this order was given through the nation’s communications commission(NCC),
Now after some series of meetings with the concerned stake holders a resolution to mandate all the Telcos to block any sim card that is not register with the NIN within the given time frame or risk loosing their operating license or a huge fine,
Why are they requesting for this?
Director of Public Affairs at NCC, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, in a statement, said , “stakeholders agreed that urgent drastic measures have now become inevitable to improve the integrity and transparency of the SIM registration process”
He also said that “A Ministerial Task Force comprising the Minister and all the CEOs (among others) as members is to monitor compliance by all networks; violations of this directive will be met by stiff sanctions, including the possibility of withdrawal of operating license; the general public is hereby urged to ensure that their NINs are captured in their SIM registration data.”
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The 4 Operating Telcos in Nigeria MTN, Airtel, 9mobile and Glo on the other hand has shown some sort of response to this order, most of them has set up portals for validation of NIN by customers, the portals includes Web, USSD and Via Text Messaging, we have shared a guide on how you can validate yours with too.
Former President, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) Olusola Teniola, said the two weeks’ window was tight considering that there are 205 million active subscribers on the network while NIMC has so far captured 43million people.
Teniola said there would be panic considering the capacity of NIMC, especially during the yuletide when people would want to get across to loved ones through voice calls and text messages but would not because they must have been disconnected from the system. This, he said, would inevitably lead to shortfall in Q1 profit of the telcos.
Their is a panic that if this order by the NCC stands that many SIM cards will be blocked due to the fact that almost half of the population don’t have NIN and can’t get one this yuletide, especially the elderly and those in rural communities.
If you have already done your NIN registration before, you can dial *346# to retrieve your NIN number.
