The Nigerian Communications Commission has directed all mobile Telecommunication operators in the country to deregister all phone lines without National Identity Numbers and those whose NINs have not been verified.
The MTN made this known via a statement on the NSE right and the attached deadlines for implementation of the directive.
The statement which was signed by the Company Secretary, Uto Ukpanah, for 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. About 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.
“As part of these efforts, we are enhancing the capacity of our various service outlets to make the process smoother and more efficient. We are committed to ensuring that our subscribers comply with the NCC directive and will continue to work with the National Identity Management Commission to accelerate the NIN verification process,” he stated.
Ukpanah, however, expressed the company’s readiness to cooperate with the Federal Government in ensuring compliance with the industry-wide directive from NCC.
He said, “As a law-abiding corporate citizen and in line with our operating licence requirements, we are committed to complying with the industry-wide directive from the NCC and will provide further updates to investors on progress and potential impact with the release of FY 2023 results.”
When we contacted NCC, a staff of the Commission who didn’t want to be mentioned said, “I am not aware of this development, but I feel it must be one of those directives that go to the operators through our legal and regulatory services department. Such directives do not come through Public Affairs,”.