Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed a notable decrease in total active mobile subscriptions during the first quarter of 2024, settling at 219 million, reflecting a decline of 5.4 million or 2.4 percent from the figure recorded in December 2023, which stood at 224.4 million.
The decline in mobile subscriptions has been attributed to the enforcement of the mandatory National Identity Number-Subscriber Identity Module (NIN-SIM) linkage policy by the NCC. Over the period from February to April, more than 40 million lines, including both active and multiple lines belonging to single subscribers, were reportedly barred.
A substantial portion of the 40 million blocked lines were inactive, contributing to the overall reduction in active mobile subscriptions.
Meanwhile, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) reported that as of April 2024, a total of 105 million Nigerians had enrolled for the National Identification Number (NIN).
The NCC had issued directives in December 2023 instructing telecom operators to disconnect SIMs not linked to their owners’ NINs by February 28, 2024. The disconnection process was carried out in three phases, with the final phase initially scheduled for April 15 but subsequently postponed to July 31 due to challenges and requests for extensions.
In the telecom sector’s response to the enforcement of the SIM-NIN rule, significant actions were taken in April 2022 when telecom operators barred over 72.77 million active telecom lines to comply with regulatory requirements. At that time, Nigeria 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 due to non-compliance with the NIN-SIM linkage directive. Other telecom operators such as Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile were also expected to implement similar actions, although specific numbers were not immediately available.
MTN’s CEO, Karl Toriola, acknowledged the impact of the directive on the company’s subscriber base but emphasized the effectiveness of customer value management initiatives in retaining affected customers, minimizing churn, and driving new connections.
Toriola stated, “Although we had to fully bar 8.6 million subscribers in line with the directive, we minimized 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.”
This strategic approach underscores efforts by telecom operators to navigate regulatory changes while managing customer relationships and sustaining business performance amidst evolving industry dynamics.
