Telecommunication giant, MTN Nigeria, has shut all its offices nationwide from July 30.
TheCable said an official of the company disclosed this to it on Tuesday.
The publication quoted the source as saying that the decision is due to the vandalism perpetrated at some of its offices by some customers whose lines were disconnected in line with the Federal Government’s NIN-SIM linkage policy,
Thousands of Nigerians had besieged the firm’s offices across the country on Monday, after their lines were barred.
On July 27, subscribers nationwide reported being blocked from making or receiving calls after their telephone lines were barred due to failure to link their national identification numbers (NINs) with the subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.
However, in the midst of the chaos, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) ordered telecommunication operators to temporarily reconnect all phone lines that were blocked as part of the NIN-SIM verification exercise.
The NIN-SIM linkage policy began in December 2020, when the Federal Government directed telecommunication companies to bar unregistered SIM cards and SIMs not linked to NINs.
Since December 2023, the NCC has reviewed the deadline a few times, but April 15, 2024, was set as the deadline for the full network barring of subscribers with four or fewer SIMs that had unverified NIN details.
