The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) gave reasons why some telecommunications subscribers who previously linked their SIM cards to their National Identification Numbers (NINs) have their mobile lines barred.
The NCC last week issued a directive to telecom service providers to bar subscribers who have failed to link their phone numbers to their NIN on or before February 28, 2024.
NCC spokesman, Reuben Muoka, who spoke on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme on Monday, said some SIM cards have verification and identification issues like disparity in information such as names and other data.
He said: “People who probably didn’t get a cleared or verified NIN” have been barred because “the earlier ones they submitted were not good.
“There are still some subscribers whose NINs are yet to be verified by NIMC and those have to also be corrected.”
Many subscribers have complained they had previously linked their NIN with their SIM cards years ago but the NCC official said some lines were barred because the information on the NIN did not tally with what the customers registered with their SIM cards.
He said subscribers will have to visit the outlets of their service providers to validate their NINs and resolve other matters.
“For now, it requires those physical visits to the stations to get it verified and validated but in the future, we hope that this will be done virtually.”
“Take it that everybody who has not submitted his NIN to the service providers has been barred. The service providers are starting to bar people many days before the deadline,” he said.
