The biggest phone company in Nigeria, MTN, disconnected many SIM cards on July 29, 2024, because people had registered their National Identification Numbers (NINs) incorrectly or not at all. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) ordered this as part of a more significant effort to ensure that all current SIM cards are linked to valid NINs. The deadline for compliance was set for July 31, 2024. This was after earlier dates in February and April 2024 were pushed back several times.
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A brief history of the disconnection
The NCC’s order to connect NINs to SIM cards was first put in place in December 2020 as a way to improve security and fight crimes like terrorism and banditry. Even though the dates were pushed back, many subscribers were disconnected because their NIN and SIM registration information did not match. According to reports, many people’s lines were stopped even after they turned in their NINs. This made a lot of customers angry and confused. Some users said their SIM cards were blocked without warning, even though they had already linked them
Protests have been held against MTN’s moves, and some customers have shown anger by damaging company property in Lagos. People who participated in the protests said many disconnections were wrong because some users had already followed the NIN’s sharing rules. Concerns have been made about how well MTN communicates about the status of NIN registrations and the requirements for disconnecting.
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What the customers said and what to do next
Customers who were harmed by the disconnect have said many different things. Many of them are angry that the process isn’t more straightforward. Some people said that the names on their SIM entries did not match the names on their NINs, which made them want to get their records changed. While MTN has yet to release a full comment on these issues, people who work in the industry say that many disconnections happen because of wrong information rather than not sending in NINs at all.
Some people can work their blocked lines again by changing their registration information. Customers can fix problems with telecom companies in several ways, such as through online platforms and customer service hotlines. The current situation, on the other hand, shows how hard it is for users to understand the NIN-SIM linkage policy
As the deadline approaches, users must still check their NIN and SIM registration information to avoid further disconnections and keep their service going.
