Nigerian Government Orders Telcos to Bar 75-Million Unlinked SIMs
Telecommunication providers in Nigeria obeyed the Federal Government’s order on Monday to block any unlinked Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card without a National Identification Number (NIN) from being used on their networks, in an effort to reduce insecurity, extortion, and kidnappings.
According to The Guardian, the Federal Government had ordered the carriers to block all current calls to unlinked SIM cards in the country through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
President Muhammadu Buhari issued an order in December 2020 to link all phone lines to an identity number in order to better manage abductions in the country.
Officials from various telecom companies verified that they received letters from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and have subsequently begun blocking outgoing calls from all unlinked SIMs on their networks.
Despite Buhari’s plan to link phone lines, there has been a spike in terrorist assaults and kidnappers in the West African country who want ransom money from families.
Kidnappers use unregistered SIM cards to contact the victims’ families and demand a ransom. 75 million Sims that are not registered with NIN will be unable to make calls as a result of the new order.
Isa Pantami, Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, stated that since the government began sanitizing its database, no individual or official with the legal authority to request bio-data and other information about NIN-SIM for a rescue mission has approached the ministry.
“President Buhari has given them permission to execute it without our involvement as a ministry.” So, with that approval, NCC has informed all relevant institutions, via my office, that Mr President has given his approval. So they can obtain databases even if we don’t give them permission,” Pantami explained.
“However, they (security personnel) have never complained or approached me to seek information from the database since then.” “The only person who wrote me a letter was the Minister of Defence, who advised us to finish the NIN-SIM exercise as soon as possible,” he stated.
