NIN: Phone users complain over barred lines after linkage 

Some telcos subscribers have complained that their phone lines have been blocked despite linking their SIM with personal national identification numbers.

According to NAN, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which regulates Nigeria’s telecommunications companies (Telcos) like MTN, Airtel, and Globacom, has told them to fully block all phone lines whose subscribers have not submitted their NINs or whose NINs have not been verified by February 28, 2024.

Additionally, the NCC said that NINs that had been submitted but not yet verified would be blocked on or before March 29, 2024.

This was also the case for NINs that had five or more lines related to them that had not yet been verified.

Additionally, if less than five lines are connected to an untrusted NIN, those lines will be banned on or before April 15, 2024.

On Tuesday night, NAN went to a lot of telecom customer service centres in Lagos and heard from customers who were upset about blocked lines at all of the stores, but especially at MTN shops.

People who signed up were mad that they could not make calls on their lines before the deadline on February 28.

Some of them said that they had already done what the NCC told them to do and linked their NINs to their SIM cards. They were shocked to find that their lines were still blocked.

A businessman named Marcel Okoh said that he got a message on his MTN line over the weekend, but he didn’t pay attention to it because he was done connecting his NIN-SIM.

Okayoh said that two days after the message was sent, he found that his SIM card had been removed, so he couldn’t use his phone to make calls or recharge it.

“The disconnection is uncalled for because I have done the needful and I should have been given time to make enquiries.”

Aisha Alao, a fashion designer who also has an MTN line, says that the operator cut her off without notice.

According to Alao, when she went to one of the MTN locations, the staff told her she needed to finish a NIN-SIM linkage.

A retired teacher named Mrs. Veronica Maduabunechukwu told NAN that she got a letter from Airtel telling her to disconnect, even though she had already finished her NIN-SIM linkage.

“The queue is still open, and I don’t see why it should be illegal.”

Another MTN user, Mrs. Chinenye Agbanusi, said that she had linked her NIN and SIM cards as early as 2020.

AGBANUSI told MTN she didn’t like how they blocked her queue even though they followed the right steps.

She also said the phone company should update its systems so that people who have already done what they need to do don’t have to deal with the same problems over and over again.

Globacom customer Miss Kanyinsola Oje said she got a message telling her to connect her SIM to NIN so she wouldn’t lose her connection.

After a few days of getting the letter, she realised that her queue was limited.

Miss Nkechi, who works at one of Airtel’s locations in Ketu, told the surveyors that customers had been coming to the office to complain about their SIM being disconnected.

Additionally, Olumide, a Globacom Agent in Ketu, said that customers had been complaining about their lines being blocked since December 2023.

He said that most of the users had said they had already finished the NIN-SIM linkage but were now having problems.

According to Olumide, the subscriber’s NIN registration name might be different from the name they used to register their SIM.

“One more problem could be that the line was given to someone else, so the name on the SIM card might still be that of the previous owner.”

In response to the complaints from customers, Mr. Funsho Aina, Senior Manager, External Relations, MTN, said that most of the banned lines were because they didn’t have enough data on them.

Aina said that it was likely that these users had finished the NIN-SIM linkage, but that the information that was recorded for NIN might not match the information that was registered for their SIM.

He said that if the data reported for NIN and SIM were different, it could affect how it was put together.

“For instance, I use Funsho to register my SIM card and Olufunsho, which is also my name, to register for the NIN.”

“Even if I do the NIN-SIM linkage, in collating by the telco, the technology might not be able to link the names to one person and the line would be disconnected until the discrepancy is corrected,” he mentioned.

However, Aina said that self-help activities could be used to fix these problems and get back together.

He told people to make a Virtual NIN (VNIN) at https://nin.mtn.ng/nin.

“On your smart phone, you can also call *996*3#.

“Select option three for Virtual NIN.” If you want to move forward, enter your NIN and your Enterprise ID, which is “109071.”

“You can also make a VNIN by dialling *346*3*your 11-digit NIN*109071#,” Aina said.

The MTN rep also said that because MTN has more subscribers than other carriers, their customers seemed to be hit more.

NIN: Phone users complain over barred lines after linkage