The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has proposed a new requirement under the Telecoms Identity Risk Management System, which mandates telecom operators to issue a minimum 14-day notice to subscribers before deactivating their SIM cards due to inactivity or postpaid churn.
The proposal is contained in a consultation paper titled Stakeholders Consultation Process for the Telecoms Identity Risks Management Platform, dated February 2026.
Under the proposed amendment to the Quality of Service Business Rules, the Commission stated that “prior to churning of a post-paid line, the Operator shall send a notification to the affected subscriber through an alternative line or an email on the pending churning of his line.”
It added that the notification “shall be sent at least 14 days before the final date for the churn of the number.”
A similar provision was introduced for prepaid subscribers, stating that “prior to churning of a pre-paid line, the Operator shall send a notification to the affected subscriber through an alternative line or an email on the pending churning of his line,” stressing again that the notice must be issued “at least 14 days before the final date for the churn of the number.”
At present, Section 2.3.1 of the QoS Business Rules allows a subscriber line to be deactivated if it has not been used for a Revenue Generating Event within six months and if inactivity persists for another six months, the subscriber may lose the number, except in cases of network-related faults.
