Tag: NIN-SIM

The just concluded verification of the National Identification Numbers (NINs) linked with Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) has led to a significant drop in the subscriptions database of all mobile network operators in the country as MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile yanked off 64.3 million lines.

According to the latest data released on Monday by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the huge loss was significantly driven by two of the operators, Globacom and 9mobile, which shed massive weight due to unverified NINs during the exercise that closed on September 14.

Globacom, which had 62.1 million active subscriptions as of March was left with 19.1 million subscriptions at the end of September, losing a whopping 43 million subscriptions.

Nigerian telecom operators are losing billions of Naira to vandalism, theft—Aminu Maida  October 29, 2024

Similarly, 9mobile, which had lost numerous customers in the past years, was left with only 3.6 million active subscriptions at the end of September.

As of March, 9mobile’s subscription database stood at 11.6 million, indicating that the telecom operator had lost about eight million subscriptions to the NIN verification exercise

This action left the four GSM operators with a total of 154.6 million active subscriptions at the end of September from 219 million recorded in March this year.

Despite the sanitization and pruning exercise on the telecom operators’ databases, MTN Nigeria still maintained its top spot in the market with 78 million active subscriptions as of September.

The company, however, also lost 3.7 million subscriptions to the exercise as its active subscriptions database stood at 81.7 million in March.

Airtel Nigeria, which occupies the second position, ended September with 53.7 million active subscriptions.

The telco also lost about 9.6 million subscriptions over the last six months bringing its database down from the 63.3 million it recorded in March.

Although the two quoted companies, MTN and Airtel, are not impacted as much as Globacom and 9mobile, this is bound to impact their Q3 2024 revenue, which will soon be released.

Before the final exercise, the operators had reported possible impacts of the exercise on their bottom lines.

Airtel Africa, the parent company of Airtel Nigeria, had in its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, disclosed that it could lose up to $4 million in monthly revenue due to the verification of customers’ NIN in Nigeria.

As of that time, Airtel reported that it had not been able to verify the NIN of about 4.9 million customers.

Earlier, MTN Nigeria also declared that it had disconnected 4.2 million lines that were not linked with NIN as of 28 February 2024. It, however, noted that that had minimal impact on its revenue as the affected customers were ‘low-value subscribers.’

Sanitized database

Speaking with Nairametrics on the development, a telecom expert, Mr. Adewale Adeoye, said the last verification exercise appeared to be the most thorough and the huge decline in operators database means that the system has been thoroughly sanitized.

“This is a good development for Nigeria and the telecom industry. It means that every Nigerian on the telecom network is now properly identified, which will promote decent use of telecommunication services.

“I hope that the Nigerian security forces will make use of this to address the insecurity in the country or else the whole exercise will be a waste of time and resources,” he said.

Earlier this month, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Dr. Aminu Maida declared all mobile lines in use in Nigeria have been linked with NIN following the conclusion of the implementation of the federal government’s 2020 policy of linking every phone number to a NIN in September.

“Today, there is no phone number that we cannot associate with a verified NIN. Not just a number, but a number that has been verified.

Read Also: UPDATED: NCC orders immediate reactivation of lines affected by NIN-SIM verification

“If this phone number is involved in fraud or any crime, I can now authoritatively say, based on the NIN linked to it, this is the person who is using that phone number,” nirametrics quoted Maida as saying while speaking at the 2024 annual corporate governance conference held in Lagos.

The compulsory linkage of NIN with SIM began in December 2020 when the government directed telecommunication companies to bar unregistered SIM cards and SIMs that were not linked to NIN.

However, several deadlines were fixed until August this year when the NCC fixed a final deadline of September 14 for not just linking but also verification of all NINs linked with SIMs.

Before that, many telecom subscribers/consumers were unable to make or receive phone calls between July 28 and 29, as the telecom operators barred millions of lines ahead of the July 31 earlier fixed by the regulator.

This, however, led to chaos as many subscribers that besieged the telco stores went violent. The action also coincided with a planned nationwide protest scheduled for August 1 to 10.

This prompted the NCC to make a U-turn, by ordering all telecommunication companies in the country to reactivate all lines they had barred.

The telecom regulator, however, noted that the suspension of the blockage was for a limited period to allow them to properly link their NIN to their SIM.

Extortion of potential enrollees for the National Identity Number (NIN) is frustrating the efforts of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to capture as many citizens and legal residents as possible, it was gathered yesterday.

It was also gathered that many of the telecom subscribers that painfully lost their Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) to the directive of the Federal Government to deactivate SIMs not linked to NIN were caught in the web because they could not afford the cash requested at the various registration points.

According to stats pasted on NIMC’s website, enrolment figures as at December 31, 2023 currently stand at over 104.16 million with the highest cumulative enrolment figure of over 11.4 million was recorded in Lagos State.

Read Also: NIN-SIM deactivation: Telcos’ brace for revenue loss

A visit to several shops opened for NIN registration in Ayobo, a Lagos suburb, showed that potential enrollees were requested to pay between N4,000 and N5,000 before they could be captured.

Mrs Bose Adeniran, a widow and mother of three, lamented that she lost her two lines, a Glo and 9mobile to the ongoing SIM deactivation because she could not afford the N5,000 demanded at the point where she wanted to register for NIN.

In a telephone interview, she said: “It is very sad that my two lines were blocked because I didn’t have NIN. I actually made efforts then to register for NIN but could not afford the N5,000 demanded by the officials doing it at Igbogila in Ipaja Ayobo Local Council Development Area of Lagos. It was a most horrible experience for me because I had three mouths to feed, accommodation cash and other bills piled up for me to pick.

Some telecommunications subscribers yesterday expressed displeasure over the barring of their lines by telcos, despite having linked their National Identification Number (NIN) with their subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.

The subscribers expressed their displeasure in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

It would be recalled that telcos, including MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9mobile had been directed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to implement full network barring on all phone lines for which subscribers had not submitted their NINs and those without verified NINs by February 28, 2024.

The NCC said further NINs that had been submitted but not verified were to be barred on or before March 29, 2024, same as in cases where five or more lines are linked to an unverified NIN.

Similarly, where less than five lines are linked to an unverified NIN, such lines are to be barred on or before April 15, 2024.

A visit to some of the telcos customer service centres, subscribers were seen complaining about barred lines at all the telcos outlets but more at the MTN outlets.

The subscribers were displeased that their lines had been barred from making calls even before the Feb. 28 deadline.

Some of them insisted that they had already linked their NINs to their SIM cards as directed by the NCC, so were surprised that their lines were still barred.

A businessman, Mr Marcel Okoh, said a message was sent to his MTN line at the weekend which he did not take serious, because he had done his NIN-SIM linkage.

Okoh said two days after the message was sent, he noticed that his SIM had been disconnected and could no longer recharge or make calls with his phone.

“The disconnection is uncalled for because I have done the needful and I should have been given time to make enquiries.

Similarly, a fashion designer, Aisha Alao, who also uses an MTN line, said she was disconnected by the telco without any notice.

Alao said it was when she got to one of the MTN outlets that the agents explained to her that she needed to do a NIN-SIM linkage.

Also speaking, a retired teacher, Mrs Veronica Maduabunechukwu, said a disconnection notice was sent to her by Airtel, despite having done her NIN-SIM linkage.

“The line has not been disconnected and I see no reason why it should be barred,” she said.

Another MTN subscriber, Mrs Chinenye Agbanusi, said she had done her NIN-SIM linkage as far back as 2020.

Agbanusi said she was not pleased with MTN for barring her line after following due process.

She added that the telco should upgrade its systems, to avoid recurring issues of barring customers that had already done the needful.

A Globacom subscriber, Miss Kanyinsola Oje, said that a notice to link her SIM to NIN to avoid disconnection was also sent to her.

She noted that some days after the notice, her line was barred.

However, during the survey, Miss Nkechi, an Agent in one of the Airtel outlets in Ketu, said that subscribers had been coming to the centre to make complaints about their SIM being disconnected.

Olumide, a Globacom Agent in Ketu, also confirmed that subscribers had been coming to the outlet to lodge complaints about their lines being barred since December 2023.

According to him, most of the subscribers insisted that they had done the NIN-SIM linkage before, but were currently having issues.

Olumide said: “The reason for the disconnection could be that the name the subscriber used in registering for their NIN is different from what they used to register their SIM.

“Another issue could be that the line was reassigned to another subscriber, so the name on the SIM could still be the name of the previous owner.

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Reacting to the subscribers’ complaints, the Senior Manager, External relations, MTN, Mr Funsho Aina, said most of the lines that were barred was because no data were found on the lines.

Aina said it was possible that these subscribers had done the NIN-SIM linkage, but the data filed for NIN might not be the same as what they registered for their SIM.

He said a discrepancy in data filed for NIN and for SIM could affect its collation.

“Take for instance, I register my SIM with Funsho, and in registering for the NIN I use Olufunsho, which is also my name.

“Even if I do the NIN-SIM linkage, in collating by the telco, the technology might not be able to link the names to one person and the line would be disconnected until the discrepancy is corrected,” he said.

Aina, however, said in order to correct such discrepancies and be reconnected, there were self-help steps that could be taken.

He urged subscribers to go to the portal: https://nin.mtn.ng/nin, to create a Virtual NIN (VNIN).

“You can also dial *996*3# on your mobile phone.

“Select option three for Virtual NIN, Enter your NIN to proceed, then enter ‘109071’ as your Enterprise ID.

“Or alternatively, dial *346*3*your 11 digit NIN*109071# to create a VNIN,” Aina said.

The MTN official also explained that it seemed as if MTN subscribers were more affected, because MTN had a large number of subscribers than the other telcos.