Nigeria’s telecom regulator has developed a brand new portal to gather and share information on recycled numbers, as a part of a broader effort to guard subscribers from fraud and id dangers related to reassigned telephone numbers.
The Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) created the Telecom Id Threat Administration System (TIRMS) Portal in March 2024, in collaboration with telecom operators. With the portal, the regulator hopes to stop misuse when numbers change palms and to strengthen belief in digital id programs.
Based on a regulatory guideline seen by TechCabal, the portal willgo stay after a 21-day session interval beginning in late February 2026 and concluding by the tip of March 2026.
The NCC needs to observe recycled numbers and share related information with telecom operators, decreasing the chance of SIM exploitation in a crucial digital ecosystem the place telephone numbers function crucial identifiers throughout banking, social platforms, and authorities providers.
As soon as lively, the NCC will host the portal, which will likely be accessible to key regulators and authorised establishments, together with the Central Financial institution of Nigeria (CBN), the Securities and Trade Fee, pension authorities, the Nationwide Id Administration Fee, safety companies, and different related stakeholders.
The regulator is finalising a Memorandum of Understanding with the CBN to get the platform working. It famous that various Know-Your-Buyer (KYC) necessities throughout sectors should be harmonised for efficient implementation.
How SIM recycling works
Numbering sources, together with phone numbers and quick codes, underpin fashionable telecommunications. In Nigeria, the NCC regulates the telecom business below the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 and its Numbering Rules. Globally, the Worldwide Telecommunication Union below Advice governs them by means of Advice E.164, which standardises numbering codecs and promotes environment friendly, equitable entry throughout borders.
As a result of every quantity should conform to a set size and format, numbering sources are inherently scarce. This finite provide means operators should guarantee optimum utilisation, which frequently includes recycling inactive numbers, a course of referred to as churning. Whereas operationally mandatory, the apply has more and more raised considerations about fraud, id mix-ups, and client safety.
Beneath Part 128 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, the NCC manages and allocates numbering sources on behalf of the Federal Authorities, assigning quantity ranges to licenced operators throughout cell, mounted, and particular providers in a way that promotes competitors, innovation, and client safety in step with world greatest practices.
The recycling framework itself is ruled by three principal devices: the Numbering Rules 2008; the High quality of Service (QoS) Rules 2024 and its accompanying Enterprise Guidelines; and the Registration of Communication Subscribers Rules 2022, and its Enterprise Guidelines.
Based on the QoS Rules 2024, a cell quantity (MSISDN) is classed as inactive if it has not recorded any Income Producing Occasion (RGE), corresponding to outgoing or incoming calls or SMS, charged USSD classes, web calls, or different income-generating exercise, for 180 days.
If inactivity continues for one more 180 days, bringing the whole to 360 days, the quantity turns into eligible for churning. At that time, cell community operators, which lease quantity ranges from the Federal Authorities by means of the NCC, might reassign the road to a brand new subscriber.
Nonetheless, the foundations are specific: no lively quantity ought to ever be reassigned. Solely numbers which have remained inactive for a full 360 days could also be recycled.
The place inactivity is attributable to a community supplier’s fault that stops RGEs, the subscriber isn’t alleged to lose the quantity. As an added safeguard, the Fee offers a “line parking” possibility below the QoS Enterprise Guidelines, permitting subscribers who anticipate a interval of inactivity to park their numbers for as much as one yr at minimal price, stopping them from being categorised as inactive and subsequently churned.
In apply, nevertheless, the digital economic system has remodeled how telephone numbers are used. At this time, a cell quantity is an anchor of digital id linked to banking profiles, funding accounts, pensions, social media platforms, and nationwide id databases.
When numbers are recycled, issues can come up. New customers might obtain textual content messages supposed for earlier homeowners. In additional severe circumstances, people have reported being investigated for offences allegedly dedicated by former customers of reassigned numbers. Others have confronted difficulties accessing providers as a result of their newly acquired quantity was nonetheless linked to legacy accounts.
These developments have uncovered the complicated interplay between telecom churn insurance policies and id administration programs throughout sectors. The recycling of numbers now presents safety and integrity dangers that stretch nicely past telecom networks.
In a single notable case, the Division of State Providers reportedly arrested a person in 2020 and detained him for 10 weeks with out trial just because he bought an MTN SIM card that beforehand belonged to the daughter of former president Muhammadu Buhari.
To deal with these dangers, the NCC is updating its regulatory framework to help the deployment of the TIRMS portal. Based on the rule of thumb, a session course of on proposed amendments to the Enterprise Guidelines of the High quality of Service Rules 2024 and the Registration of Communications Subscribers Rules 2022 is already underway and is anticipated to conclude by the tip of March 2026.
One main proposed reform is the introduction of necessary notifications to subscribers whose numbers are about to be churned. Beneath the revised guidelines, line homeowners will likely be alerted by means of various contact channels inside a specified timeframe earlier than disconnection, permitting them to reactivate or park their traces.
The amendments may even set up a proper regulatory framework for warehousing churned numbers inside TIRMS, outline controlled-access protocols for related sectors, and create clear procedures for blocking numbers implicated in fraudulent exercise.
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