NCC Orders MTN, Airtel, Others to Reactive Disconnected Phone Lines

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The major telecommunication companies, MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, Glo and 9mobile, have been directed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to reactive all the phone lines barred from making calls with immediate effect.

Over the weekend, many subscribers noticed they could not make calls, especially customers of MTN, causing them to storm offices of their telecoms provider on Monday.

Apparently worried by the outrage and allegations that the action was taken to prevent young Nigerians from embarking on a planned nationwide protest on Thursday, the industry regulator has waded in, ordering the mobile operators to unbar phone lines of the affected customers.

In a statement signed today by its Director of Public Affairs, Mr Reuben Muoka, the NCC, however, emphasised that the reactivation of the disconnected was temporary, urging subscribers who are yet to link their Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards to their National Identification Numbers (NINs) to quickly do so.

The regulator explained that the GSM service providers disconnected the affected subscribers in line with the laws and policies of the NIN-SIM linkage of the federal government.

“Since December 2023, the commission has since reviewed the deadline a few times; April 15, 2024 was set as the deadline for the full network barring of subscribers with four or fewer SIMs that had unverified NIN details.

“This deadline was then reviewed to July 31, 2024, to give consumers more time to ensure their submitted NIN details are properly verified. Despite these extensions, many phone lines are yet to be linked with verified NINs.

“The objectives of this exercise by the Federal Government of Nigeria include enhancing national security and ensuring the national SIM ownership database is accurate. The NIN-SIM linkage policy aids in verifying and protecting users’ identities while also providing a critical infrastructure that assures access to the benefits of a robust digital economy for the citizenry,” a part of the statement said.

The agency appealed to members of the public who are yet to verify their SIMs “to do so as soon as possible to maintain access to their lines,” noting that “the consumer is our priority.”

The commission stressed that, “Reactivated consumers are to note that this is for a limited period to allow them to properly link their NIN to their SIM.”