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Nigeria introduces strict restrictions on mobile phone users. Residents who have not yet linked their SIM to a National Identity Number (NIN) are barred from making calls. The policy took effect on April, 4, primarily aimed at criminal groups using unregistered SIM cards
Nigeria introduces strict restrictions on mobile phone users. Residents who have not yet linked their SIM to a National Identity Number (NIN) are barred from making calls. The policy took effect on April 4, primarily aimed at criminal groups using unregistered SIM cards.
Over 125 million SIMs have had their NINs submitted for immediate linkage, verification, and authentication. However, millions of Nigerian SIM holders have yet to comply with the law. The Nigerian Minister of Communications said that all users who have not complied with the NIN-SIM would be barred from receiving outgoing calls.
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The National Identification Number (NIN) consists of 11 numbers randomly chosen and assigned to an individual. It is done at the completion of enrolment into the National identity database. The government asked residents to link their NIN to their subscriber Identification Module (SIM) for security purposes.
For years now, Nigeria has been urging telecom companies to check the identity of their subscribers base. It is often found that unregistered SIM cards were being used by criminal gangs and insurgents. It may be recalled in 2016, Africa’s largest mobile operator, MTN was fined US$3.9 billion in Nigeria for failing to disconnect users of unregistered SIM cards.
