MTN is requesting six months moratorium for compliance with the federal government directive of linking national identification numbers (NIN) to SIM cards of phone subscribers in Nigeria.
Karl Toriola, incoming chief executive of MTN Nigeria said on Thursday that the mobile company is ready to comply with the directive in six months – which implies that the December 30, 2020 deadline may not be feasible.
Nigeria created the SIM card linkage with NIN in an attempt to stop the use of untraceable/unregistered numbers which criminals and terrorist are exploiting.
Security and telecommunications experts say fulfilling the directive is a daunting task, as the industry needs to link the numbers of some 200 million active mobile phone lines; more so as Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) said last week that all cards without a valid NIN would be blocked from December 30, 2020.
Providers which fail to comply face stiff sanctions, including the withdrawal of licenses, according to NCC.
In a call with investors, MTN executives said they had acquired licences to verify and issue NINs and were building up infrastructure to complete the task, as well as working closely with Nigerian authorities to assess the viability of the December 30 deadline.
“I think there’s a very realistic chance that we complete this within six months,” said Toriola, pointing out that a portion of its base was already compliant.
Ferdi Moolman, current Nigeria CEO, said he did not see a ban on the sale of new SIM cards announced earlier in December lasting as long as six months.