The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday, ordered telecom operators to reactivate lines affected by the linking of the National Identification Numbers (NINs) with their Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) (NIN-SIM) verification issues.
LEADERSHIP checks reveal that at least 20 million subscribers to the MTN Nigeria network were disconnected.
Prior to the NCC announcement, Nigerians in their thousands had besieged the offices of the telecommunications service providers to express anger and frustration over the mass deactivation of their mobile lines following their alleged inability to link their National Identity Numbers (NINs) with their Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) as demanded by the law.
In a press statement, made available to LEADERSHIP, and signed by the director, Public Affairs, NCC, Reuben Muoka, the Commission said consumer is its priority, while directing all operators to reactivate all lines that were disconnected over the weekend in view of the short time available for consumers to undertake the verification of their NINs with their SIMs.
The press statement partly reads: “The consumer is our priority; therefore, considering the challenges the blockages have caused, the Commission has directed all operators to reactivate all lines that were disconnected over the weekend in view of the short time available for consumers to undertake the verification of their NINs with their SIMs. Reactivated consumers are to note that this is for a limited period to allow them to properly link their NIN to their SIM.”
The Commission therefore tasked members of the public who are yet to verify their SIMs to do so as soon as possible to maintain access to their lines.
LEADERSHIP checks showed as early as 5am on Monday morning, typically the busiest day of the week for workers and other business people, many abandoned their work and trooped to the offices of the service providers to protest what they called a sudden blockage of their lines “without prior notice”.
At the office of the Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) in Maitama District of the nation’s capital, a massive crowd had gathered and tension mounted so high as subscribers defied the presence of a detachment of the men of the Nigerian Police Force stationed there, threatening to pull down the fence of the service provider when it became apparent that officials of the MTN where not ready to attend to them or let anyone into the main building.
It took a while before the angry subscribers heeded the appeal for calm but many expressed their confusion over the NIN-SIM linkage having already done so as prescribed by the law and demanded by the service providers.
Subscribers to MTN Line were lamenting loss of time and businesses, yesterday, as they besieged the telco’s offices nationwide over barring their Subscriber Identification Modules(SIMs).
This is even as the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) had debunked rumour on social media platforms that telecoms operators only blocked the lines of those they considered as threat to the country amid imminent protests slated for 1st of August, 2024.
Over the weekend, many telecom subscribers/consumers were unable to access their phone lines because of the inability of many telecom consumers to verify their NINs with their Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs). This meant that their numbers were blocked by their telecom service providers in keeping with laws and policies of the NIN-SIM linkage.
Subscribers flooded the MTN Office in different parts of Lagos to enquire about the status of their NIN-SIM linkage as their MTN lines were blocked at the weekend.
A visit to the National Identity Management Commission(NIMC) in Ikeja, Lagos and some telecommunications companies customer service centres on Monday, showed that many subscribers visited the service centres in droves to rectify the issues with their linkage or to link their NIN to their SIMs.
Our correspondent witnessed hundreds of people storming the Ojodu-Berger area office of MTN as they lamented that the line blockage has affected their programmes for the week and also their businesses.
A subscriber named, John Buchi, told our correspondent that she woke up to notice her line stopped working over the weekend. “I woke up and I couldn’t make calls, I tried to link my NIN to my SIM but I couldn’t. That is why I came, but I have rectified the problem with the help of the customer care representative,” she said.
Other subscribers also corroborated her. According to some of them, they have been trying to make calls but can’t, while claiming that they had earlier done the linkage of NINs to SIMs.
“I have linked my NIN to SIM in January 2024. I was shocked to notice that I could not make calls over the weekend. I thought it was a general issue, but later realised that my line has been barred. The process is tedious, and I don’t think I want to go through the stress of queuing and wasting my whole day,” a trader at Ojota market, Goodnews Dafinone lamented.
A middle aged woman, Morenikeji Salau also noted that she had done the NIN linkage to her SIM in March, only to find out that her number was blocked because of non- completion of the process which she thought had been done. She accused the firm of unsettling her and her business because of this as she was scheduled to disburse goods to her client but this has been hampered.
Another subscriber who wants to be addressed as Mr Mike noted that he had planned to link his NIN to his line last week but the persistent outage in his area had hindered him from doing so. He noted that the queue he witnessed today showed why many had delayed in undergoing the process. He lamented that this ought not to be so and beckoned on officials of the telecommunication company to come to their aid.
Other subscribers who stormed the offices in Lagos lamented the lack of time to accomplish the process.
Recall the compulsory linkage of NIN with SIM which began in December 2020 when the government directed telecommunication companies to ban unregistered SIM cards and SIMs that were not linked to NIN.
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.
In a press statement, made available to LEADERSHIP, and signed by the director, Public Affairs, NCC, Reuben Muoka, the commission said, consumer is its priority, while directing all operators to reactivate all lines that were disconnected over the weekend in view of the short time available for consumers to undertake the verification of their NINs with their SIMs.
The press statement partly reads: “The consumer is our priority; therefore, considering the challenges the blockages have caused, the Commission has directed all operators to reactivate all lines that were disconnected over the weekend in view of the short time available for consumers to undertake the verification of their NINs with their SIMs. Reactivated consumers are to note that this is for a limited period to allow them to properly link their NIN to their SIM.”
The commission, therefore, tasked members of the public who are yet to verify their SIMs to do so as soon as possible to maintain access to their lines.
Recall that social media platforms were awash with rumours that telecom operators only blocked the lines of those they considered as threats to the country. In his reaction, the chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) Chairman,, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, said there is absolutely no connection between the two.
“The NIN/SIM link registration deadline has earlier been set for 31st July, 2024. The fact of the matter is that the harmonisation exercise of the SIM Registration database and National Identity Database has been ongoing for several months.
“This is aimed at improving the integrity of the National SIM registration database. Customers who had their lines blocked recently are those whom their service providers found a mismatch between their records on both databases,” Adebayo explained.
He said, operators have put in place measures to ensure that anyone whose line is blocked can unblock it by following some easy steps, while urging customers to contact their service providers through communicated channels for resolution of the issue.
He, however, reiterated that ALTON is committed to supporting the government of Nigeria, and upholding the rights of citizens. “As an industry, we respect and commit to protecting the rights of all people to communicate, to share information freely
and responsibly, and to enjoy privacy and security regarding their data and their use of digital communications,” he added.
A female civil servant, who gave her name as Cecil, expressed her frustration while speaking with LEADERSHIP on Monday over the issue. She said “this thing is causing a lot of damage to many people especially business people as this has truncated their transactions. One of my friends is calling somebody to bring goods for him but the lines were not going, now he does not even know the state of things and he borrowed money to get these goods.
“I had to leave my office to come here but nobody has addressed us. I don’t understand why they blocked my line when I have done everything they asked us to do. I cannot communicate, I cannot receive any message, and I don’t know what is going on. People are not happy with this development and I believe people will sue them for damages.
She also threatened to stop using the MTN line because of how she was shabbily treated.
Another young woman who does not want her name on print told LEADERSHIP that she does not understand the reason her number was barred because she had earlier done the biometric and linked her mobile line with the NIN and received confirmation from the service providers only for her line to be blocked.
She said “it is definitely annoying to have my line blocked when I have already done the biometrics in the MTN office here in Maitama, where they linked my NIN to my SIM. They sent me a message confirming that my line has been linked only for me to wake up this morning to get a message that I cannot make calls with my line because it has been blocked over this NIN-SIM issue. I don’t understand this.”
She lamented the frustration of going through the tedious process of the linkage again, stressing that she has wasted so much time and lost money in the process because a lot of the transactions she would have done have now been suspended with great risks to her businesses.
Another young man who claimed to be a communications engineer said the issue may be attributed to “technical hitches” He said “What I see here is a technical issue, maybe the fiber connecting Nigeria has been affected. They (service providers) might be hiding the real issues from Nigerians” even as he urged the service providers to do the needful to restore the lines.
Another Nigerian public servant who does not want his name on print claimed that he subscribes to two MTN mobile lines, stressing that while one of the lines is working, the other with which he does most of his transactions was blocked making him to lose money and uncertain about his account details which he feared might be affected.
At the time of filing this report on Monday, no MTN official was around to speak to the press as they were all holes inside their offices leaving the security men at the entrance to battle with the surging crowd.
LEADERSHIP also visited the Globacom office at the Wuse 2 District and that of the Airtel near the popular Banex Plaza in Abuja and it was the same stories of lamentation, frustration, anger and protests by subscribers.
A middle-aged man believes that the blockage of subscribers’ lines may be connected to the August 1 protests, even as he insinuated that the government may have planned to cut communication in order to thwart the looming #EndBadGovernance protests.
However, an official of the Globacom mobile provider told LEADERSHIP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak, that the subscribers are to blame because many failed to follow the appropriate guidelines in linking their NINs and SIMs.
He said “some of them have inconsistencies in their names and their photographs and many others did not do their biometric linkage as required by the law”.
