Telcos Lose Millions Of Subscribers To NIN-SIM Linkage

Telecommunication companies have lost 19.2million subscribers since the inception of the linking of National Identity Number (NIN) with SIM cards.

Gatekeepers News reports that the Federal Government on Monday, December 14, 2020, made it compulsory for all SIM cards to be linked to National Identity Number (NIN).

Following the directive, Nigerians at different locations began with the registration and linkage of their NIN across the country.

With the action, the subscriber base fell from 207,907,709 in November 2020, to 188,705,734 in April 2021.

New industry statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission on Tuesday showed that MTN is the biggest loser with over 7,202,757 subscribers lost, while Airtel, Globacom and 9mobile lost 7,054,115; 4,490,531; and 408,904 subscribers respectively.

The latest NCC data released on Tuesday showed that the telcos lost 3.7 million subscribers in April as the subscriber base fell from 192,413,613 in March.

Broadband penetration also dropped from 45.07 per cent in November to 40.66 per cent in April.

The telcos have lost more than eight million data subscribers since the SIM-NIN policy began. Porting services dropped from 16,342 in November to zero in April.

In December 2020, the sale and registration of new SIM cards were banned by the Federal Government and a December 30 deadline issued for people to link their National Identity Number with their SIM cards was set.

The deadline was later pegged for April 6, before the new announcement. The implication of this is that Nigerians, who are yet to complete the NIN-SIM registration now have up till May 6 to do, failure of which may warrant the SIM card to be blocked by then.

This has since been moved to June 30, 2021.