The federal government has said 72 million mobile telephone lines barred by telecom operators last week will not be unblocked until their owners’ National Identity Numbers (NINs) are linked.
This was disclosed in a statement by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Tuesday.
“The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) wishes to officially inform telecoms consumers, whose Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards are barred from making calls, that affected SIMs will not be unbarred by the service providers until they are linked with the National Identification Numbers (NINs) of the SIM holders”, the statement said.
NCC said the information has become necessary in view of a viral web being circulated on social media and on some websites, which accompanying narrative represents patent misinformation designed to mislead the general public about the SIM cards that are barred from making calls, due to non-linkage with NIN at the set deadline.
It said: “The misleading, viral message mischievously displays the NCC logo and ostensibly promises members of the public that, by clicking the web link and following further instructions in that regard, subscribers with barred SIM cards can unbar such SIMs across mobile networks without a valid NIN.
The Commission said for subscribers that have not registered for their NIN, what to do is to get their SIM registered at accredited centers across the country and then link the NIN with their SIM cards through channels provided by their service providers.
