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Telecom

Over 65m GSM Lines Risk Disconnection over SIM-NIN Linkage

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About 65 million phone lines are at risk of disconnection after telecom operators refused to grant subscribers an extension to the National Identification Number (NIN) -Subscriber Identity Module (SIIM) linkage deadline.

Over 65m GSM Lines Risk Disconnection over SIM-NIN Linkage

The final deadline expired on September 14, 2024, and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), the telecom regulator, expected that no SIM card would remain active without a verified NIN from September 15.

The Punch suggested that approximately 65 million lines remain at risk, as an estimated one million lines could not have been linked between the NCC’s deadline announcement and the actual cut-off date.

The telecom regulator’s data from March 2024 shows there were 219 million active lines across major networks such as MTN, Glo, Airtel, and 9mobile, with 153 million linked to NINs.

This means that about 66 million lines were unlinked to NIN after the NCC’s deadline announcement.

Meanwhile, , Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), discarded the idea of a deadline extension and confirmed to The PUNCH on Monday that the disconnection process is already ongoing.

“It’s difficult to provide exact numbers for the lines disconnected so far, but it’s certainly less than 66 million because, even on the day of the deadline, people were still linking their SIMs,” Adebayo said.

He affirmed that mobile operators were adhering to the NCC’s directives, describing the deadline as “acceptable and reasonable.”

Adebayo urged subscribers to comply, stating, “We can’t keep extending deadlines and going back and forth on this issue. This is a national concern, and these data are critical for national development.”

However, the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers urged the NCC to extend the deadline.

Speaking with The PUNCH, the President of the association appealed to the NCC to push the deadline to September 22, allowing customer experience centres to operate over the weekend.

He said this would enable subscribers to resolve any registration issues on the NIN portal and avoid potential disruptions to telecom services.

“Given the NIN portal’s technical glitches that persisted for almost a week earlier, and the improvements made last week, it’s only fair that the NCC allows subscribers to make up for the lost time. This extension will provide a much-needed buffer for subscribers to resolve any registration issues,” he said.

Barely two weeks ago, Adeolu Ogungbanjo, president of the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS), expressed worry that there were challenges in linking NIN to SIM cards, with many subscribers expressing frustration over slow speeds and congestion on the NIMC portal.

Ogunbanjo emphasised that the current portal issues hinder the successful completion of the NIN-SIM linkage before the deadline, stating, “The current situation will not meet the deadline if not addressed urgently.”

Between July 28 and 29, millions of lines were temporarily barred due to unverified NINs, causing widespread disruptions in the country. The NCC had reversed its decision, giving subscribers more time to comply. However, with the deadline now expired, disconnections will commence.

Before the deadline elapsed, an NCC official, who requested anonymity as he was not authorised to comment on the matter, dismissed any possibility of an extension.

“We will disconnect anyone who refuses to comply; the grace period is over. The reason why we extended the last time was the misconception of Nigerians who claimed that the NCC wanted to frustrate the August 1 protest.”

In March, the NIMC and the NCC formed a strategic collaboration in a move at enhancing processes related to the NIN-SIM linkage.

According to their first-half 2024 financial results, MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa collectively barred 13.5 million lines due to non-compliance with the NIN-SIM linkage directive.

MTN Nigeria reported blocking 8.6 million lines, while Airtel Africa stated that 4.8 million lines remained unverified, contrary to earlier reports of 8.7 million completed verifications.

The compulsory NIN-SIM linkage, initiated in December 2020, aimed to curb unregistered SIMs and those without NIN links. Following multiple deadline extensions by the NCC since December 2023, April 15, 2024, was set as the final deadline for fully barring subscribers with four or fewer SIMs having unverified NIN details.

 


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Telecom

MTN Nigeria Wins Award for Best Use of Data @MarkHack 4.0 Awards Night

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L-R: Akinbulejo Onabolu, Head, Enterprise Segment, MTN Nigeria; Eneyi Obi, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Rise; Tobi Olanisimi, Marketing Manager, AB InBev; Martha Kayode, Marketing Head, PZ Cussonz; Sulaiman Shaibu, CEO, BFT Consulting Service and Daniel Adeyemi, Managing Editor, Condia Business at the MarkHack 4.0 Conference held at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos on Friday, May 23, 2025.
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MTN Nigeria’s commitment to digital innovation took center stage at MarkHack 4.0, the annual marketing and technology conference held at Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Friday, May 23, 2025, with the theme ‘Experience Ignited: Fueling the Customer’s Journey’.

L-R: Akinbulejo Onabolu, Head, Enterprise Segment, MTN Nigeria; Eneyi Obi, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Rise; Tobi Olanisimi, Marketing Manager, AB InBev; Martha Kayode, Marketing Head, PZ Cussonz; Sulaiman Shaibu, CEO, BFT Consulting Service and Daniel Adeyemi, Managing Editor, Condia Business at the MarkHack 4.0 Conference held at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos on Friday, May 23, 2025.

In a celebration of innovation, technology, and storytelling, the company also took home the award for Best Use of Data in a Marketing Campaign at the Nigeria MarTech (MarkHack 4.0) Awards Night. This award recognizes brands that have successfully transformed data into compelling narratives and actionable insights to meaningfully engage their audiences.

Akinbulejo Onabolu, Senior Manager, Segment Management, Enterprise Business at MTN, joined a panel to discuss the power of immersive technologies on consumer behaviour. Drawing from MTN’s launch of its 5G Digital Experience Centre in Abuja last year, Onabolu highlighted the rapid evolution of immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) stating “Our 5G centre is a sandbox for our customers to come and see how technology can shape things. At the launch event, we unveiled a smart city to customers, clients and dignitaries in attendance, with gaming and other tech experiences.”

On the intersection of data, AR and VR, he added: “Co-creating with MTN takes our minds to a platform where different partners, companies and creators can bring their buildings, products and businesses for people to see via augmented reality and connectivity, just swiping through and following through that journey.

“As a part of impacting our customer’s lives, a few years ago, we also played around with the Metaverse and we ended up creating some of our back-office processes with some of our customer journeys on augmented reality and virtual reality such that a customer somewhere can engage with a virtual agent to solve real life problems and integrating that back into our operating systems. As an organization, at a lot of our events, you will find a lot of AR and VR experiences.”

Speaking on how MTN is embedding immersive technology into its day-to-day operations, he explained that the company is prioritizing both internal capability development and external engagement. “85% of our organization has undergone extensive training on AI and that already is a great addition to our daily lives. We’re using it to do things differently, developing user journeys and brainstorming different things. In terms of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, we are working with organizations to develop training programs which we use internally.”

He described the bases for this tech as stable connectivity, high bandwidth, high speed and low latency. “Over the past year, we’ve doubled our 5G capacity across the entire country. Wherever you are, you’ll probably start to pick up 5G. With our FibreX service, we’re going way beyond connectivity to create the systems and platforms to support the ecosystem, AR and VR. In addition to this, we’re also engaging regulatory systems to start to tease this out and build the proper governance.”

The session, moderated by Daniel Adeyemi, Managing Editor at Condia Business, also featured insights from leaders in FMCG, consulting, and global marketing, all underscoring the transformative potential of immersive technologies for Africa’s future.


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Telecom

MTN Nigeria Invests ₦900Bn in 2025 to Boost Network Quality in Lagos & Abuja

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MTN Nigeria has announced a massive capital expenditure (CAPEX) drive for 2025, nearly doubling its investment to almost 900 billion Naira, as it seeks to significantly enhance network service quality in major cities like Lagos and Abuja and extend improvements to other areas.

 

Karl Toriola

Karl Toriola

This financial commitment, up from a combined total of approximately 440 billion Naira spent in 2023 and 2024, was detailed by MTN Nigeria CEO, Dr. Karl Toriola, during a recent interview on Arise TV.

Toriola highlighted that a key focus of the increased CAPEX will be on “putting additional capacity in a city like Lagos, particularly in Abuja, where you have a lot of buildings coming up, you need additional sites because there are coverage issues.”

Beyond these critical urban centres, the investment aims to bolster network resilience and ensure power stability for its infrastructure nationwide. This includes proactively addressing site outages by ensuring timely payment for operational necessities such as diesel for generators, a persistent challenge in the Nigerian operating environment

The CEO outlined the comprehensive nature of the upgrade process, which involves “placing orders formally, opening letters of credit, and then the equipment gets shipped in and installed.” He added that where necessary, MTN will be “acquiring new sites” and “laying fiber to the base station to create better stability.”

While the immediate CAPEX is geared towards improving existing service quality and capacity, this investment aligns with MTN’s broader goals, which include enhancing financial inclusion in underserved rural areas, suggesting a long-term vision for network expansion and service improvement that extends beyond metropolitan areas.

Customers are expected to begin experiencing the positive impact of these investments with a “significant improvement in quality of service” anticipated by the end of the second quarter or early in the third quarter of 2025, according to Toriola.


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Telecom

Airtel’s AI Spam Alert Flags 9.6m Spam Attempts

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Airtel Nigeria, telecom service provider, has announced that its AI-powered Spam Alert Service issued over 9.6 million spam alerts between March 13 and May 20, 2025.

Airtel’s AI Spam Alert Flags 9.6m Spam Attempts

As part of its ongoing commitment to protecting customers from unwanted and potentially fraudulent communications, Airtel designed the AI Spam Alert service to analyze traffic patterns and detect anomalies.

In the period since launch the AI pinpointed a total of 9,667,008 SMS as potential spam messages in the two months after its launch.

Of these, the system identified 528,080 on-net (Airtel-to-Airtel) and 9,138,928 off-net (from other networks) numbers as suspected spam messages, demonstrating the scale of the threat and Airtel’s advanced processing capability.

Airtel Nigeria is a subsidiary of Airtel Africa.

Commenting on this development, Dinesh Balsingh, CEO, Airtel Nigeria, restated Airtel`s commitment to protecting its customers.

“This milestone demonstrates the strength of our AI-driven infrastructure in combating the growing menace of spam and scam calls. At Airtel Nigeria, we are focused on connecting Nigerians and ensuring their safety and confidence while using our network.

“We understand that trust is the cornerstone of digital communication. That’s why we’ve invested heavily in intelligent systems that not only detect potential threats but also learn and evolve with data. As threats become more sophisticated, so will our solutions. As a company, we remain focused on leading the industry in innovation and customer satisfaction, ensuring that every Nigerian can enjoy a safer and smarter digital experience,” Mr. Balsingh said.

The Spam Alert Service is part of Airtel Nigeria’s broader strategy to integrate artificial intelligence into its core offerings to deliver smarter and safer experiences for its customers across the country.

Recall that the Spam Alert Service was launched on March 13, 2025. A groundbreaking and free solution from Airtel, it notifies users in real-time of suspected spam SMS messages by analyzing over 250 parameters.

The Airtel AI Spam Alert Service is available to all Airtel subscribers on smartphones and feature phones.

 

 


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