A claim has been circulating on social media that MTN subscribers who did not link their National Identification Numbers (NIN) to their phone numbers were blocked by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
On Wednesday, February 28, 2024, many MTN subscribers in Nigeria reported difficulty making and receiving calls, sending and receiving messages, and accessing the internet, prompting the suspicion that the disruption was due to the NCC’s order to disconnect subscribers who have not linked their NIN to their SIM cards by the deadline of February 28, 2024.
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The outage left many subscribers frustrated and stranded, as they could not communicate with their families, friends, or business partners. Some of them visited MTN offices near them to seek explanations, while others vented their anger on social media platforms.
To verify the claim, the Explainer Fact Checker visited the official X page and found out that it had denied that the outage was related to the NCC’s directive.
MTN Nigeria, the country’s largest mobile network operator with over 87 million subscribers, in the post, said the problem was caused by “multiple fibre cuts” affecting voice and data services.
The company also apologised for the inconvenience and assured its customers that its engineers were “working hard to restore full service as soon as possible.”
However, the post did not specify the cause or location of the fibre cuts.
The Explainer Fact Checker also found out from the NCC, that the network outage was not due to its directive.
The NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Ruben Mouka, said the commission had not started enforcing the disconnection of unlinked subscribers.
Speaking at the 45th Kaduna International Trade Fair on Wednesday, Mouka said the Commission was still in the process of verifying the NIN data submitted by the telecom operators and would communicate the next steps to the public soon.
Verdict: False.
MTN Nigeria said the network outage experienced by its subscribers on Wednesday was caused by “multiple fibre cuts” and not by NCC’s directive.
