Telcos Resume SIM Swap Services After NIMC Platform Disruption — MTN, Airtel Confirm Full Restoration
Telecommunications companies in Nigeria have resumed SIM swap services after a disruption that left millions of subscribers unable to access critical telecom services. Leading providers MTN and Airtel confirmed the resumption, attributing the earlier delays to issues with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)’s NIN verification platform. The outage had caused significant service interruptions, especially for those needing SIM replacements and activations.
MTN Nigeria, via its support handle on X (formerly Twitter), announced that NIMC services are now fully operational. The company thanked NIMC for its cooperation during the migration to a new identity verification platform and encouraged affected customers to visit service centres for assistance. Airtel Nigeria also confirmed the portal’s restoration and apologized for earlier contradictory messages and delays.
While MTN and Airtel have both resumed full services, other providers like Glo and 9mobile have not yet issued formal updates. However, the NIMC has boosted MTN and Airtel’s statements, indicating that SIM swap services are broadly resuming across networks. Customers are advised to check with their providers or visit service centres if issues persist.
The disruption was caused by NIMC’s migration to a new identity verification platform, which temporarily halted access to the NIN verification system. This system is essential for confirming identities during SIM registration, in compliance with Nigeria’s strict SIM-NIN integration policy. The technical overhaul was part of broader efforts to modernize the country’s identity infrastructure.
This incident underscores the dependency of telecom operations on digital identity systems. Following the September 2024 deadline by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to link SIMs with NINs, all unlinked SIMs were disconnected. Consequently, access to a functioning verification platform is now critical, as no SIM-related services can proceed without it.
Source: Nairametrics