National identity number and mobile phone ownership

In a continued drive to enforce and accelerate NIN enrollment, NIMC and the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy on April 4, 2022, took the decision to disconnect mobile lines yet to link their NIN to their SIM cards. This immediately restricted outgoing call services of more than 30 million Nigerian mobile lines. Our graph shows that 73.1% of mobile phone owners in the poorest segment of society did not have a NIN in 2020; and therefore more likely to be directly affected by the restrictions on mobile phone use. This confirms that mobile phone ownership does not indicate NIN ownership and it is progressively exacerbated as you get poorer.