NCC Proposes Fine Of ₦200,000 Per Line To Telcos Over Failure To Verify NIN

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has proposed a N200,000 fine for telecommunications companies that fail to verify and validate subscribers’ biometric, National Identity Number (NIN), and other personal information.

This is stated in a proposed draft regulation on telephone subscriber registration 2021, which is available on the NCC’s website.

The federal government had requested that Nigerians register for NIN and link their unique number to phone lines.

The deadline for NIN registration and subscriber identity module (SIM) integration has been extended at least six times since the announcement in 2020.

The original deadline was January 19, 2021, but it was pushed back to February 9, April 6, May 6, June 30, July 26, and now October 31.

The NCC stated in Section 19 of the draft document that mobile communications service providers must ensure that NINs are verified and validated before activation.

Those who violate the requirement will face a N200,000 fine, according to the statement.

A similar penalty has been proposed for telcos that fail to register subscribers with the central database, as well as for those who activate subscriptions without properly registering such subscribers.

“Any licensee who fails to capture, or who preregisters, registers, deregisters, or transmits the details of any individual or corporate subscribers to the Central Database as specified in these Regulations or as may be stipulated from time to time by the Commission, is liable to a penalty of N200,000.00 for each subscription medium,” according to the draft.

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