MTN Nigeria disconnects 4.2m lines, as deadline for NIN linkage passes
In compliance with the February 28 deadline set for the integration of National Identification Numbers (NIN) with mobile SIMs, MTN Nigeria has severed ties with 4.2 million lines on its network.
The telecom giant unveiled this development alongside its audited financial results today – Friday March 1, 2024, asserting that the disconnect was enforced due to subscribers’ failure to furnish their NINs.
MTN clarified that since December 2023, following a directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) mandating the complete barring of lines not linked to NINs, it had subjected 19 million lines to verification procedures.
Out of this pool, 4.3 million lines were successfully verified, while 4.2 million lines were disconnected by the end of February 2024.
Despite the significant disconnections, MTN Nigeria assured stakeholders that its revenue would remain largely unaffected as the affected users were categorized as low-value subscribers.
The company emphasised its ongoing collaboration with regulatory bodies to expedite the NIN verification process and mitigate service disruptions.
Additionally, MTN said it has intensified its efforts to assist affected customers by providing multiple verification channels.
Reflecting on the performance of MTN Nigeria in 2023, the Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, highlighted the company’s robust commercial momentum in both connectivity services and platforms.
Notably, Toriola disclosed that the company witnessed a substantial increase in its subscriber base, adding over 4 million new users and reaching a total of 79.7 million subscribers.
He said the expansion was complemented by a rise in data subscribers, exceeding 5 million, and a remarkable 44.9 per cent growth in total data traffic.
Toriola attributed this growth to the sustained demand for data services, supported by MTN’s compelling offerings and continuous investments in network quality and coverage.
We added over 4 million subscribers in 2023, bringing our total base to 79.7 million. We also increased our data subscribers by over 5 million to 44.6 million, which helped to drive total data traffic growth of 44.9%.
“This reflected the sustained growth in demand for data, supported by our compelling propositions to customers and the consistent investment in the quality and coverage of our network.
“The additional 2600MHz spectrum we acquired in September 2023 also helped us to deploy additional capacity to our network more efficiently,” Toriola said.
In line with directives issued by the NCC in December the previous year, all telecommunications operators in Nigeria, including MTN, Airtel, and Globacom, were required to implement full network barring on lines not linked with NINs by February 28, 2024.
Additionally, subscribers who had submitted their NINs but remained unverified were subject to full barring.
The directive specified that lines linked to unverified NINs must be barred by March 29, 2024, for cases where five or more lines are associated with an unverified NIN.
Similarly, lines linked to unverified NINs with less than five connections are to be barred by April 15, 2024.
Verification, encompassing both biometrics and biodata, is mandatory for the restoration of services to affected subscribers.
