The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is set to implement full network barring on all phone lines of telecommunication providers like MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and others for which the subscribers have not linked or verified their national identity numbers (NIN).
MTN Nigeria made this announcement on the Nigerian Exchange Limited website on December 18, 2023.
According to the statement, NCC has instructed the telecom provider to block phone lines for which subscribers have not submitted their NINs by February 28, 2024.
In the statement signed by its Company Secretary, Uto Ukpanah, MTN Nigeria said,
“This is part of an industry-wide directive that requires phone lines for which the subscribers have not submitted their NINs to be barred on or before 28 February 2024.
With regard to NINs that have been submitted but not verified, such lines are to be barred on or before 29 March 2024, 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 15 April 2024. All affected subscribers must be verified (biometrics and biodata) before their lines are unbarred.”
The current directive is a follow-up to the NCC’s directive of April 2022 requiring operators to restrict outgoing calls (one-way barring) for subscribers whose lines are not associated with NINs.
