Why SIM Cards Linked With NIN Are Being Barred – NCC

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC has explained why some SIM cards are still barred despite linking them to their NINs.

According to NCC, the reason is because of the duplication of National Identification Numbers.

This, according to NCC, is due to the activity of third-party agents who duplicate NINs for unsuspecting telecom subscribers.

The commission revealed this at a recent media briefing in Lagos.

Commenting on the issue, the commission’s Director of Compliance, Mr Efosa Idehen, 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.

“We are seeing this and want to correct it. We want a situation where when people say they are the owners of their SIMs, there is no doubt.”

This comes from recent complaints by some subscribers that their lines had been barred by telcos despite linking their NINs with their SIM cards.