The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has placed a permanent ban on the registration of old SIM cards.
Tony Ojobo, the NCC’s director of public affairs, said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja the grace period for the registration of old SIM cards expired in 2012, which means only new lines should be registered by telecoms.
“Registration of new SIM cards was allowed to enable subscribers to have freedom of entry and exit from a mobile network to be able to switch to a new mobile network of their choice,” he said.
“If the registration is stopped, how would foreigners that are coming to Nigeria or new citizens who are ripe to use mobile phones register? There is no time we can stop the registration. What was stopped was the registration of old SIM cards after nine months that the official registration started, for old SIMs it has stopped, but for new it shall continue.”
Ojobo said telecoms companies have the right to reissue unregistered lines after nine months of inactivity.
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