MTN Nigeria, the group’s largest operation, will cut off customers that have not complied with new national identity regulations, as part of an industry-wide order from the Nigerian government.
In April 2022, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said all operators are required to restrict outgoing calls of subscribers whose SIMs are not yet linked with their national identity numbers (NINs). For wary investors, the registration programme could be a concern as previous clashes with Nigerian authorities have hammered MTN’s share price.
Africa’s largest mobile operator has been working to fix the issue and get more of its customers registered on the new system. It has previously reported setting up about 10,000 outlets in the country to help subscribers with enrolment.
MTN Nigeria said it received a formal directive from the NCC “to implement full network barring on all phone lines” for which the subscribers have not submitted their NINs and those whose NINs are unverified.
MTN Nigeria’s company secretary, Uto Ukpanah, said this is part of an industry-wide directive that requires phone lines to be barred on or before February 28.
With regard to NINs that have been submitted but not verified, such lines are to be barred on or before March 29, where five or more lines are linked to an unverified NIN. Where less than five lines are linked to an unverified NIN, such lines are to be barred on or before April 15.
“We urge all our subscribers who have not yet linked their NIN to their lines to take immediate action by visiting the nearest MTN outlet or using any of our digital channels before the deadlines,” Ukpanah said.
All affected subscribers must be verified with biometrics and biodata before their lines will be unbarred.
MTN is working to boost capacity of its various service outlets to make the process of registration smoother and more efficient for customers.
Efforts around registrations appear to be paying off, as mobile subscribers rose by 2-million, or 4.8%, to 77.6-million in the quarter to end-September. The operator reported service revenue rose 21.4% to 1.8-trillion naira (about R42.76bn) in the period.
MTN is still locked in a battle with Nigerian authorities over a R1.4bn tax bill, another of many disputes MTN has had with the West African nation.
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