MTN Nigeria has fully barred a total of 8.6 million lines from the network in line with the directive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on SIMs not linked to the National Identification Number (NIN) of the users.
In its first quarter (Q1) 2024 financial report, the MTN said the development impacted its business in the quarter.
According to MTN, the lines that have been fully barred are those of subscribers who did not submit their NIN and those with more than five lines linked to an unverified NIN.
MTN Nigeria’s CEO, Karl Toriola, said the firm’s total number of subscribers decreased by 2 million in Q1, closing with a total of 77.7 million subscribers.
Meanwhile, the company also reported a decline in its data subscribers in the quarter under review, noting that active data subscribers declined marginally by approximately 78,000 to 44.5 million.
Toriola, however, said MTN Nigeria notwithstanding these headwinds, recorded increased activity within the base, with voice traffic rising by 5.1% and data traffic by 40.6%.
