On Sunday, Nigerians took to social media to express frustration over their MTN lines being barred from making or receiving calls.
This disruption follows a mass disconnection of telephone lines not linked with national identification numbers (NINs) that began late Saturday, affecting many 9mobile subscribers as well.
The disconnection comes just before a planned nationwide protest scheduled for August 1. Angry crowds have gathered outside MTN offices in Abuja, Oyo, Kano, and Lagos in response to the issue.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) set a deadline of July 31 for telcos to bar subscribers whose NINs were not linked to their phone lines, a deadline extended from April 15, 2024. However, many subscribers report their lines being blocked despite having successfully linked their SIMs with their NINs.
In February, the NCC warned that 45 million subscribers could be barred for not completing the linkage.
