Nigerian telco body seeks SIM registration extension

Nigeria's National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) has requested a two-week extension on the country's SIM registration deadline, as the country's telcos struggle to meet the regulator's mandate to disconnect unregistered SIMs.

The final deadline for all Nigerian SIMs to be linked to a national identity number (NIN) was September 14, 2024, but NATCOMS has asked for this to be moved to September 30, 2024.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NATCOMS President Deolu Ogunbanjo said that an extension was needed due to challenges with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) portal.

"We are experiencing significant issues with the NIMC portal. The portal's inability to handle the high volume of uploads has led to delays and frustrations for telecom operators and subscribers," Ogunbanjo said.

He urged the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to extend the deadline to the end of the month, allowing NIMC to enhance its portal capacity and improve the process for everyone involved.

The regulator had previously explained that verifying all mobile users through SIM registration would strengthen confidence in digital transactions, reduce the risk of fraud and cybercrime, and support greater participation in e-commerce, digital banking and mobile money services.

NATCOMS President Deolu Ogunbanjo said that a deadline extension was needed due to challenges with the National Identity Management Commission's portal. (Source: natanaelginting on Freepik)

The mandatory SIM registration process began in December 2020, following a government directive to disable unregistered SIMs.

Since then, the country's registration process deadlines have been extended several times.

However, the NCC's latest data shows that over 153 million SIMs have now been successfully linked to a NIN, achieving a compliance rate of 96%, a notable increase from 69.7% in January 2024.

African SIM registration trend

Many African countries are mandating SIM card registration to combat SIM fraud and requiring users to link their SIM cards to national ID cards.

Nigeria is amongst a list of countries that have already implemented mandatory SIM card registration processes including Lesotho, Ghana, Namibia, and Mauritania.

However, in many African countries, SIM registration deadlines have proven hard to enforce, just like Nigeria, Tanzania has also pushed back its registration deadline several times.

— Matshepo Sehloho, Associate Editor, Connecting Africa