The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced that SIM cards not linked to National Identity Numbers (NIN) will be deactivated by the end of February.

The compulsory linkage between SIM cards and NINs was initiated in December 2020 to improve security by preventing unregistered and unlinked phone numbers for criminal activities.

Despite deadline extensions, there has been a significant number of phone lines that remain unlinked.

The NCC Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Aminu Maida, emphasized that pre-registered or illegally registered SIM cards have been challenging, and the SIM-NIN connection was intended to address this issue.

Maida made the comment on Tuesday in an interactive session with journalists, noting that the commission will now adopt a data-driven decision-making approach and hold telecom service providers accountable for service delivery to consumers.

“You are going to see a change in the way we make decisions; we are going to be very data-driven. All our decisions are going to be backed up by data as much as possible. We want to reduce subjectiveness and make the right decisions that will improve the industry.

“We intend to hold our licensees accountable for all services. After all, the consumers pay for the services, and they expect the service to be at a certain level or point, so we will be holding our licensees accountable to ensure they deliver on their obligations to their licenses.

“We need to put smiles back on the faces of consumers. NCC is clear on this: we need to protect the interest of consumers. They remain number one because that is where you extract values from.

“Yet, the interest of licensed operators will also be protected while we put eyes on their activities to see the level of compliance,” he said.

He further mentioned that the commission will prioritize three critical stakeholders: consumers, the industry, and licensees.

According to him, the NCC aims to address consumer complaints more effectively by monitoring licensees’ customer service systems and identifying the reasons for delays in issue resolution.

He added that the decision to deactivate SIM cards without NIN is part of the government’s efforts to enhance security measures and combat activities of bandits and terrorists.