Tuesday, March, 3 2026 -The Nigerian Communications Commission has proposed that telecom operators must give subscribers a minimum of 14 days’ notice before deactivating their SIM cards over inactivity or post-paid churn.
The proposal is contained in a consultation paper titled
Stakeholders Consultation Process for the Telecoms Identity Risks Management
Platform, dated February 2026 and published on the Commission’s website.
Under the proposed amendments to the Quality-of-Service
Business Rules, the NCC stated that “prior to churning of a post-paid line, the
Operator shall send a notification to the affected subscriber through an
alternative line or an email on the pending churning of his line.”
It added, “This notification shall be sent at least 14 days
before the final date for the churn of the number.”
A similar provision was proposed for prepaid subscribers.
The commission said, “prior to churning of a pre-paid line, the Operator shall
send a notification to the affected subscriber through an alternative line or
an email on the pending churning of his line,” stressing again that the notice
“shall be sent at least 14 days before the final date for the churn of the
number.”
Currently, under Section 2.3.1 of the QoS Business Rules, a
subscriber line may be deactivated if it has not been used within six months
for a Revenue Generating Event, and if inactivity persists for another six
months, the subscriber may lose the number, except in cases of network-related
faults.
The commission also proposed that operators must submit
churn data to the new Telecoms Identity Risk Management System. According to
the document, “An Operator shall submit details of all churn numbers to the
Telecoms Identity Risks Management System (TIRMS) within seven days of
completion of the churn process.”
The proposed changes form part of a broader regulatory
review tied to the rollout of the Telecoms Identity Risk Management System, a
cross-sector platform designed to curb fraud linked to recycled, swapped, and
barred mobile numbers.
In the background section of the paper, the NCC explained
that the TIRMS “is a secure, regulatory-backed Platform that helps prevent
fraud stemming from churned, swapped, barred Mobile Station International
Subscriber Directory Number in Nigeria.”
It added that the platform “will provide a uniform approach
for all sectors in relation to the integrity and utilisation of registered
MSISDNs on the Nigerian Communications network.”
The consultation process, which the commission said is in
line with Section 58 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, is open for 21
days from the date of publication. Stakeholders are expected to submit comments
on or before March 20, 2026.
The document was dated February 26, 2026, and signed by the
Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Dr Aminu
Maida.
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