Around 65 million phone lines are at risk of disconnection following the refusal of telecom operators to extend the deadline for linking Subscriber Identity Modules (SIM) with National Identification Numbers (NIN). The deadline, which expired on September 14, 2024, was enforced by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), the country’s telecom regulator. From September 15, no SIM card was expected to remain active without a verified NIN.
According to data from the NCC as of March 2024, there were 219 million active phone lines across major networks, including MTN, Glo, Airtel, and 9mobile. Out of these, 153 million lines were successfully linked to NINs, leaving approximately 66 million lines unlinked and vulnerable to disconnection.
The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo, ruled out the possibility of another deadline extension, confirming that the disconnection process had already begun.
“It’s difficult to provide exact numbers for the lines disconnected so far, but it’s certainly less than 66 million because, even on the day of the deadline, people were still linking their SIMs,”.
