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Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed a decrease in total active mobile subscriptions in the country, with a dip of 5.4 million or 2.4 per cent, settling at 219 million in the first quarter of 2024.
In December 2023, total active mobile subscriptions stood at 224.4 million, compared to 219 million recorded in March 2024.
The decline is attributed to the enforcement of the mandatory National Identity Number-Subscriber Identity Module (NIN-SIM) linkage policy by the NCC.
During the enforcement period, over 40 million lines, including active and multiple lines belonging to a single mobile subscriber, may have been barred between February and April.
As of April 2024, the total number of Nigerians who have enrolled for NIN was reported to be 105 million, according to the National Identity Management Commission.
The NCC had issued a notice in December 2023 instructing telecom operators to bar SIMs not linked to their owners’ NINs by February 28, 2024.
The disconnection process unfolded in three phases, with the first phase occurring in February, followed by the second phase on March 29, 2024.
The final phase, initially scheduled for April 15, has been postponed to July 31, following careful consideration of challenges and requests for extensions.
In April 2022, Nigeria witnessed a significant development in its telecom sector as telecom operators began enforcing the SIM-NIN rule, resulting in over 72.77 million active telecom lines being barred by the telcos.
During that period, the country had a total of 197.77 million active telecom lines.
MTN Nigeria disclosed in its first-quarter 2024 financial report that it had barred 8.6 million lines, while Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile are expected to follow suit, although specific numbers have not been released.
MTN CEO, Karl Toriola, stated, “During the quarter, we also continued to manage the effects on our business of the industry-wide directive of the Nigerian Communications Commission for a full barring of subscriber lines not linked to their National Identity Number.
“This impacted the development of our user base across all of our key business units (voice, data, and fintech) in Q1 2024. Although we had to fully bar 8.6 million subscribers in line with the directive, we minimised the net effect of the barred subscribers, and our total number of subscribers only decreased by 2 million in Q1, closing with a total of 77.7 million subscribers.”
Toriola emphasized the effectiveness of the company’s customer value management initiatives, which helped it retain affected customers, reduce churn, and drive gross connections.
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