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Airtel Nigeria has reported that 9.2 million of its subscribers have completed the National Identification Number (NIN) verification process in compliance with the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) deadline of February 28.
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The company, as disclosed by its parent company Airtel Africa in its nine-month financial statement, highlighted that Airtel Nigeria, which already had a majority of its customers linked with NINs, is actively verifying the submitted data.
A total of 4.5 million customers have already undergone the verification process since the directive was issued in December 2023.
While emphasizing that the number of customers without NINs is not substantial enough to impact revenue significantly, Airtel assured that it is collaborating with the telecom regulator to minimize the potential risk of service disruption for any affected customers by the looming deadline.
The NCC had issued a directive in December 2023, instructing mobile network operators to implement full network barring for phone lines not linked with NINs by February 28, 2024.
The directive extends to lines that have submitted NINs but have not been verified, with specific deadlines for varying scenarios, all aiming at ensuring compliance with national identity requirements.
This directive follows a prior NCC directive in April 2022, urging operators to restrict outgoing calls for lines not linked with NINs.
