Afeez Labode, a London-based businessman has used his Airtel Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) number for 22 years, and despite relocating to the UK years ago, he continues to maintain the ‘0802569****’ number for local transactions, accessing credentials and contacting people whenever he is in Nigeria.
This sequence of 11 numbers, he believed, belonged exclusively to him until he landed in Nigeria on May 21.
When he inserted his SIM card in his phone to call his driver, he realised with shock that he could not reach anyone with it. What he then did was connect to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) WiFi to contact the driver online.
Labode did not go home from the airport, but visited an Airtel outlet in the Gbagada area of Lagos State. There he found out his number was no longer exclusive. Another person owned it.
Who? He wondered.
“We sold it to Kenneth,” they replied.
FIJ has omitted the new user’s first name for privacy reasons. Airtel was able to tell him the name because to purchase a new SIM, one had to submit a valid National Identification Number (NIN) which contained holders’ personal biodata. This new NIN was now linked to Labode’s 22-year-old SIM.
“All my bank transaction notifications go to that number, and it’s the same one I have always had,” Labode told FIJ. “How do my friends and family reach me?”
The businessman said he usually recharged the phone number every two or three months to keep it active, and he uses it whenever he visits Nigeria every three years, but Airtel told him he recharging does not keep the line active. Calls and texts made within a 365-day window do.
Meanwhile, according to the Quality of Service Business Rules issued by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in 2024, a phone number may be deactivated only if it has not been used in any revenue-generating event (RGE) within six months.
RGE includes outgoing and incoming voice calls, subscription to any voice plan or any plan that gives voice access to a subscriber for a specific period, outgoing and incoming Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), mobile data usage and USSD transactions, among others.
Labode’s regular subscriptions should have kept his number active.
JOURNEY TO RECOVERY
The businessman left the outlet disappointed and took it upon himself to attempt to recover his number.
The next day, he called Kenneth, the new holder of the SIM, and explained the situation to him. Kenneth, who lives in a state in northern Nigeria, took the call and demanded a N100,000 fee to sell the SIM.
The conversation became a negotiation, and the businessman soon came to an agreement to recover his old number for N50,000. Both men agreed on an exchange model, and they had someone collect the SIM for the money.
Three days later, Labode was at the MMIA to travel to Mecca for Hajj. There, he realised a significant data flaw.
2 NINs, 1 NUMBER
“When I got to the airport, the immigration officers asked for my name, then called out my old phone number and NIN from their database,” Labode told FIJ during a May 25 call after going through checks by officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).
He said he registered his NIN using that number, and if there were any issues with the use of the number in the NIS’ database, it would have affected him negatively at the airport.
“The same thing happened when I returned to the country. This means my records are still linked,” he added.
Labode also said he renewed his passport in London in 2024, and his NIN and phone number were part of that process.
He faulted the network provider for not giving him any warning before reassigning his number. Labode also expressed worries about the disconnect between the Communications Ministry and the telecommunications sector which leads to issues like the one he had to deal with.
Before recovering the physical SIM, Labode went to court to swear a necessary affidavit to show he no longer had access to the number so he could update his other records.
FIJ has earlier documented the travails of (and financial risks for) subscribers whose numbers were suddenly deactivated after a sustained period of inactivity.
At the time, an NCC staff member explained that the commission was exploring ways to address these concerns by developing a cross-sector platform that would collect and share data on recycled phone numbers. The platform will also identify numbers that have been flagged for fraudulent activities, as reported by other sector regulators.
Insiders said the NCC was working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), security agencies and other critical stakeholders to test a beta solution to the problem.
“The goal is to prevent the misuse of numbers when they change hands. The information on this platform will be made available to relevant stakeholders across various sectors. The NCC will host the platform and establish its regulatory and operational framework,” the NCC insider told FIJ.