MTN disconnects 4.2m lines after NCC deadline

MTN Nigeria has announced the disconnection of 4.2 million lines from its network following the expiration of the February 28 deadline given by the Nigerian Communications Commission over failure to link their National Identification Numbers (NIN) with mobile Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs).

The company said the lines disconnected were those for which the subscribers did not submit their NIN. MTN disclosed this in its audited financial results released on Friday. 

According to the company, since December 2023 when the NCC issued an industry-wide directive requiring full barring of subscriber lines not linked to their NIN, it had subjected a total of 19 million lines to verification. 

Out of these, it said 4.3 million had been verified and 4.2 million disconnected as at February 28, 2024. 

The company, however, noted that the disconnected lines would not affect its revenue as the users were of low value.  

“Several of these lines were low-value subscribers, minimising the revenue impact. We are actively engaging the authorities to accelerate the NIN verification process.  

“We have also increased our engagement with the affected customers, providing various channels for verification to minimise service disruption,” MTN stated.