By Damilare Adeleye
Telecommunications firm, MTN, has announced shutdown of all its stores and service centres across Nigeria.
This was coming on the heels of an outrage by some of its subscribers across the country after the network provider barred their lines on Sunday.
On July 27, Nigerians nationwide reported being blocked from making or receiving calls after their telephone lines were barred due to failure to link their national identification numbers (NINs) with the subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.
On Monday, a group of angry customers pulled down the fence at an MTN Nigeria office in FESTAC Town, Lagos.
The offices of other telecommunication firms in some parts of the country — Oyo, FCT, and Kano — were also besieged by subscribers over the development.
Reacting on Tuesday, MTN said it would be shutting its shops nationwide today.
“Yello customer, please be informed that our shops nationwide will be closed today, 30th July 2024,” the statement sighted on X read.
Similarly, an official of the telecommunication company confirmed the development, saying that the decision was due to the vandalisation of the company’s offices by aggrieved customers whose lines were disconnected in line with the government’s NIN-SIM linkage policy.
However, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Monday ordered telecommunications operators to temporarily reconnect all phone lines that were blocked as part of the NIN-SIM verification exercise.
The NIN-SIM linkage policy began in December 2020 when the federal government directed telecommunication companies to bar unregistered SIM cards and SIMs not linked to NINs.
Since December 2023, the NCC has reviewed the deadline a few times, but April 15, 2024, was set as the deadline for the full network barring of subscribers with four or fewer SIMs that had unverified NIN details.
However, the deadline was later reviewed to July 31, 2024, “to give consumers more time to ensure their submitted NIN details are properly verified”.