MTN Nigeria said it had eliminated at least 8.6 million lines from its network in compliance with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) ruling of February 28, 2024, which requires telecommunication companies to disconnect SIM cards not linked to the National Identity Number (NIN).
This information was disclosed
in the company’s financial report for the first quarter (Q1) of 2024,
indicating an impact on the operations of the quarter.
MTN specified that users with
more than five lines connected to an unverified NIN and those who did not
submit their NIN are the ones affected by the complete ban on their lines.
Additionally, MTN mentioned
that the NCC has extended the deadline from April 15 to July 31, 2024, to allow
users with fewer than five lines connected to an unverified NIN more time to
complete the necessary verification process.
Karl Toriola, the CEO of MTN
Nigeria, addressed the effects of the NIN-SIM linkage exercise and the regulatory
directive on the sector, stating that during the quarter, the company also
continued to manage the effects on its business of the industry-wide directive
of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for a full barring of
subscriber lines not linked to their National Identity Number (NIN) – the
NIN-SIM directive.
He added: “This impacted the
development of our user base across all of our key business units (voice, data,
and fintech) in Q1 2024. Although we had to fully bar 8.6 million subscribers
in line with the directive, we minimised 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.”
Toriola stated that this
demonstrated the effectiveness of the company’s customer value management (CVM)
initiatives, contributing to lower churn rates, improved customer loyalty, and
an increase in total connections.
Information provided by the NCC
indicates that the combined active mobile subscriptions in Nigeria from MTN,
Airtel, Globacom, and 9mobile decreased from 224.4 million in December 2023 to
219 million by March 2024 due to the enforcement of the mandatory NIN-SIM
registration policy by all telecom service providers.
“MTN also reported a decline in
its data subscribers in the quarter under review. Active data subscribers
declined marginally by approximately 78,000 to 44.5 million. Notwithstanding
these headwinds, we recorded increased activity within the base, with voice
traffic rising by 5.1 per cent and data traffic by 40.6 per cent. This is a
result of the consistent growth in demand for data and voice, supported by our
attractive offers to customers and continuous investment in network quality and
coverage,” Toriola stated
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