Telecommunications operators say the recent barring of some subscribers’ lines has nothing to do with a planned national protest billed to start from Thursday.
Millions of subscribers’ lines have been barred in recent days in a move that many suspected to be part of the government’s attempt to stifle the planned protest.
But the Telcos say the development is not connected to the protest.
“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,” ALTON said in a Monday statement by its chairman Gbenga Adebayo and secretary Gbolahan Awonuga.
“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.”
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It asked customers to reach their service providers for the resolution of the issue.
How to Unblock Your SIM Cards
According to ALTON, operators have put in measures to help customers unblock their lines by following these steps:
1. 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.
2. EMTS: 9Mobile: Dial *200*8#
3. Glo: Dial *109*Your NIN number# For example if your NIN is 12345678901, you would dial *109*12345678901# Then follow the prompts to submit your NIN for linkage.
4. MTN: If an MTN line is barred, all the subscriber needs to 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.
5. Smile: Send your valid NIN to [email protected] or call 07020444444, you will be asked to provide consent, and upon receipt of customer consent and successful verification of NIN, the line will be unbarred.
6. 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 [email protected] and submit their NIN but will have to submit their KYC at Spectranet Store. Customer can go to the Spectranet website and submit their NIN online but to complete the process they will have to do KYC at the Spectranet Store.
7. Ntel: Customer should visit any Ntel store with their NIN, the fingerprint is used to call up their existing KYC profile with Ntel for verification, consent is received and the 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,” it said.
