By Halimah Olamide
-ALTON Denies Link of SIMs to Planned Nationwide Protest
Many outlets of one of the leading telecommunication companies, MTN have been besieged Monday morning as subscribers make efforts to unblock their lines.
The company itself had gone online to inform its subscribers steps to be taken to unblock the blocked lines.
However, our correspondents who visited some outlets on Monday reported that anger and frustrations are setting in.
At the Yahaya Abatan, College Road outlet where one of our correspondents visited, it was tug of war as customers jostled for spaces as no fewer than 300 people stormed the outlet.
In Osogbo, angry subscribers protested what they called shabby treatments as many of them alleged they had spent many hours without being attended to.
Already there are insinuations that the blocking of the millions of the sims is to cause distraction for the August 1 nationwide protest.
However, this has been debunked by the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, ALTON which said the two issues have no link at all.
ALTON said in a statement made available to the NPO Reports, “The fact of the matter is that the harmonization exercise of the SIM Registration database and National Identity Database has been ongoing for several months. This is aimed at improving the integrity of the National SIM registration database. Customers who had their lines blocked recently are those whom their service providers found a mismatch between their records on both databases. We advise such customers to contact their service providers through communicated channels for resolution of the issue.”
ALTON Statement on Line Barring and Unbarring
The attention of the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has been drawn to some online reports linking the ongoing subscriber line barring exercise, with the planned national protest.
There’s absolutely no connection between the two. The NIN/SIM link registration deadline has earlier been set for 31st July, 2024.
The fact of the matter is that the harmonization exercise of the SIM Registration database and National Identity Database has been ongoing for several months. This is aimed at improving the integrity of the National SIM registration database. Customers who had their lines blocked recently are those whom their service providers found a mismatch between their records on both databases. We advise such customers to contact their service providers through communicated channels for resolution of the issue.
A video shared by one X user with the handle @CHUkEricE showed angry people in Osogbo, the Osun state capital complaining about the situation:
However, all operators have put in place measures to ensure that anyone whose line is blocked can unblock it by following some easy steps.
- Airtel: Dial *121# and input your eleven digit NIN number. The subscriber will receive a confirmation message that you have successfully unbarred your Airtel Sim card.
- EMTS: 9Mobile: Dial *200*8#
- Glo: Dial *109*Your NIN number# For example if your NIN 12345678901, you would dial
*109*12345678901# Then follow the prompts to submit your NIN for linkage.
- MTN: If a MTN line is barred, all the subscriber need do is visit nin.mtn.ng, to check the NIN status, and if not linked, proceed to link it. During the process, an OTP would be requested, as well as the NIN. After giving consent and submitting the NIN linking request, it will be done and the line will be automatically
unbarred.
- Smile: Send your valid NIN to customercare@smile.com.ng or call 07020444444, you will be asked to
provide consent, upon receipt of customer consent and successful verification of NIN, the line will be
unbarred.
- Spectranet: Call toll free line 8002345678 and submit your NIN but will have to get your KYC done at
Spectranet Store. Customer can email us at care@spectranet.com.ng and submit their NIN but will have to submit their KYC at Spectranet Store. Customer can go to Spectranet website and submit their NIN online but to complete the process they will have to do KYC at Spectranet Store.
- Ntel: Customer should visits any Ntel store with their NIN, fingerprint is used to call up their existing KYC profile with Ntel for verification, consent is received and line is updated and unbarred.
In case these online steps fail, subscribers can physically visit any walk-in centres of operators, to unblock their lines.
ALTON is committed to supporting the government of Nigeria, and upholding the rights of citizens. As an industry, we respect and commit to protecting the rights of all people to communicate, to share information freely and responsibly, and to enjoy privacy and security regarding their data and their use of digital communications.