The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has extended by one week the second phase of the SIM-NIN linkage deadline, top officials of the commission told Daily Trust.
It would be recalled that the disconnection process was rolled out in stages, with the second phase scheduled for today, March 2
The first phase took place on February 28, 2024, after NCC directed telecom operators to bar millions of subscribers for refusing to link their SIMs with their NINs.
The third phase is slated to commence on April 15, 2024, as previously announced by NCC in December, 2023.
However, the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) said it would be unfair to bar any subscriber because some of them had been having difficulty linking their SIMs with their NINs.
NATCOMS’ President, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, therefore, requested that the NCC extend the deadline scheduled for the disconnection of telephone lines not linked to NIN beyond Friday, March 29, 2024.
Speaking with the journalists yesterday, a top official of NCC said the commission had extended the second phase deadline by one week because of the Easter public holiday.
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The official, who pleaded anonymity, said the telcos had been directed not to bar any subscriber until after one week, from Friday, March 29.
He explained that, “the telecom operators will not bar any subscriber yet. We will only be talking about barring after a week from tomorrow. Yes, technically, we can say the deadline has been extended by a week.”
Another NCC top staff member who corroborated what the first official told our reporter added that NCC yielded to appeals by some CSOs and telecom right groups calling for deadline extension because of internet glitches experienced in the country two weeks ago.