NCC Explains Why Some SIMs Are Blocked After NIN Linkage
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has blamed the duplication of National Identification Numbers (NINs) for the recent cases of SIM cards being blocked after being linked to their NINs.
The NCC said that some third-party agents who register SIM cards for telecom subscribers have been duplicating NINs and linking them to multiple SIMs without the knowledge of the original owners.
The NCC’s Director of Compliance, Mr Efosa Idehen, disclosed this at a media briefing in Lagos. He said that the NCC had detected this fraudulent practice during an audit of the SIM-NIN linkage system.
He said: “On the issue of already registered SIMs and NIN, the issue is that some of those SIMs were registered with duplicated NINs. When an audit of the system is carried out, actual owners of the NINs reclaim them. We have a lot of things that people do within the industry, especially SIM-NIN linkage for money purposes. Yes, people register their SIMs and try to link their NINs but the agents doing those registrations do a lot of damage.”
He added that the NCC was working to correct this anomaly and ensure that only genuine SIM-NIN linkages are validated. He said that the NCC wanted to create a situation where subscribers could confidently claim ownership of their SIMs.
He also warned that the NCC was committed to enforcing the safety and security of telecom subscribers and would not tolerate any illegal activities in the sector.
