Gbenga Adebayo, the chairman Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), confirmed this to Daily post exclusively on Tuesday, December 19, 2023.
According to him, the directive to deactivate SIMs not linked to NIN is the Nigerian Communications Commission, the country’s telecom regulatory body.
He explained that the implication is that subscribers of Nigeria’s Mobile Network Operators, including MTN, Airtel, and Globacom, whose SIMs are not linked to NIN, will be deactivated.
“The implication is that those who do not have their SIMs linked to the National Identity Number or whose lines have been linked but are yet to be verified need to do otherwise; otherwise, they will be disconnected.
“You know that it is a government directive; it is not our decision; if you read the press statement, the Nigerian Communication Commission directed that we should withdraw the service. We only have to abide by the regulatory directive. We are concerned about the directive because of the number of active subscribers on the networks, but we can only ask people to abide by it because it is a government directive”, he told DAILY POST.
The development came after the federal government issued several NIN-SIM linkage deadlines.
In December 2020, the federal government introduced the SIM-NIN Linkage policy to curtail insecurity and enshrine sanity in the telecoms sector.
According to NCC, the number of telecom subscribers in Nigeria hit 220,715,961 million as of August 2023.
He explained that the implication is that subscribers of Nigeria’s Mobile Network Operators, including MTN, Airtel, and Globacom, whose SIMs are not linked to NIN, will be deactivated.
“The implication is that those who do not have their SIMs linked to the National Identity Number or whose lines have been linked but are yet to be verified need to do otherwise; otherwise, they will be disconnected.
“You know that it is a government directive; it is not our decision; if you read the press statement, the Nigerian Communication Commission directed that we should withdraw the service. We only have to abide by the regulatory directive. We are concerned about the directive because of the number of active subscribers on the networks, but we can only ask people to abide by it because it is a government directive”, he told DAILY POST.
The development came after the federal government issued several NIN-SIM linkage deadlines.
In December 2020, the federal government introduced the SIM-NIN Linkage policy to curtail insecurity and enshrine sanity in the telecoms sector.
According to NCC, the number of telecom subscribers in Nigeria hit 220,715,961 million as of August 2023.
okay
ReplyDeleteIf they act decisively, our security may improve. No more kidnapping for ransom and fictitious phone calls from fake bank agent asking for ATM card details.
ReplyDeleteIf they act decisively, our security may improve. No more kidnapping for ransom and fictitious phone calls from fake bank agent asking for ATM card details.
ReplyDeleteAlright.
ReplyDeleteBy now most people should gotten their Nin verified with their linked mobile network line.
This thing has been on for a while now.
They deactivated my MTN line already. Good riddance, beggy beggy people did not allow me rest on that line sef. I won't even do anything about that one, let me rest jare.
ReplyDeleteNoted
ReplyDeleteE no move us at all..
ReplyDeleteMake una disconnect all of us sef
A lot of Nigerians have not linked their lines to their NIN. The former procedure of using a code to link is no longer working. Now you must go to a telecom office to do the linking. It's going to be another round of long queues and stress
ReplyDeletesome people still haven't done NIN up till now and NIMC have withdrawn licenses from most individuals and telecom companies allowed to register NIN for individuals.people go as early as 3am to NIMC head office here in Benin just to do their NIN
ReplyDeleteEvil people,every end of the year,the same memo,If they are sincere,the rate of kidnapping and extortion would have declined instead its booming.🙄🙄🙄
ReplyDeleteHow many deadlines do this people have sef? This is like the 10th one. They are not serious.
ReplyDelete