The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has attributed the recent complaints from subscribers, who had their SIMs barred despite linking them to their National Identification Numbers (NINs), to the duplication of NINs.
The NCC explained that third-party agents are responsible for duplicating NINs for unsuspecting telecom subscribers.
Mr. Efosa Idehen, the Director of Compliance at the NCC, stated, “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.”
The commission aims to address this issue and ensure that the SIM-NIN linkage process is accurate and secure, preventing the use of duplicated NINs by unauthorized individuals.
The move is part of efforts to enhance the security and reliability of the telecommunications system in Nigeria.
