MTN Nigeria has deactivated 8.6 million lines from its network in compliance with the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) ruling on February 28, 2024, mandating telecom companies to disconnect SIM cards not linked with the National Identity Number (NIN).
The company disclosed this in its first-quarter (Q1) 2024 financial report, noting the impact on its operations during the quarter.
MTN clarified that lines associated with unverified NINs, particularly those with more than five connections, and users who failed to submit their NINs were the ones entirely disconnected.
However, it mentioned that the NCC extended the deadline from April 15 to July 31, 2024, granting users with fewer than five unverified lines additional time to complete the verification process.
Karl Toriola, MTN Nigeria’s CEO, addressed the impact of the NIN-SIM linkage exercise and regulatory directives on the sector.
He stated, “We also continued to manage the effects on our business of the industry-wide directive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for a full barring of subscriber lines not linked to their National Identity Number (NIN) – the NIN-SIM directive. This impacted the development of our user base across all of our key business units (voice, data, and fintech) in Q1 2024.”
Toriola highlighted the success of the company’s customer value management (CVM) programs in reducing churn, retaining customers, and growing gross connections despite the challenges.
Data from the NCC indicated a decline in total active mobile subscriptions across networks, from 224.4 million in December 2023 to 219 million in March 2024, as all telecom operators implemented the mandatory NIN-SIM linkage policy.
Also, MTN reported a slight decrease in active data subscribers in the quarter, alongside increased activity within the base, with voice traffic rising by 5.1% and data traffic by 40.6%, driven by consistent growth in demand for data and voice services.
