The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has suggested that telecom operators are required to provide subscribers with a minimum notice period of 14 days prior to the deactivation of their SIM cards due to inactivity or post-paid churn.
This suggestion is outlined in a consultation document titled Stakeholders Consultation Process for the Telecoms Identity Risks Management Platform, which is dated February 2026 and has been published on the Commission’s official website.
As part of the proposed revisions to the Quality-of-Service Business Rules, the NCC indicated that “before the churning of a post-paid line, the Operator must notify the affected subscriber via an alternative line or email regarding the impending churning of their line.”
Furthermore, it stated, “This notification must be dispatched at least 14 days prior to the final date for the churn of the number.”
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A comparable requirement has been suggested for prepaid subscribers. The commission noted, “before the churning of a pre-paid line, the Operator must send a notification to the affected subscriber through an alternative line or email concerning the impending churning of their line,” reiterating that the notice “must be sent at least 14 days before the final date for the churn of the number.”
At present, according to Section 2.3.1 of the QoS Business Rules, a subscriber line may be deactivated if it has not been utilised for a Revenue Generating Event within a six-month period, and if inactivity continues for an additional six months, the subscriber may forfeit the number, except in instances of network-related issues.
The commission has also proposed that operators are obligated to submit churn data to the new Telecoms Identity Risk Management System. As stated in the document, “An Operator must provide details of all churn numbers to the Telecoms Identity Risks Management System (TIRMS) within seven days following the completion of the churn process.”
These proposed modifications are part of a wider regulatory review associated with the implementation of the Telecoms Identity Risk Management System, a cross-sector platform aimed at reducing fraud related to telecommunications.
