₦airaland Forum

Banks and telecommunication companies (telcos) have expressed frustration over disruption to their services triggered by continuous downtime on the NIN verification portal.

The downtime to the NIN Verification platform which started the previous week, had persisted over the weekend in spite of assurance by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) that the problem had been resolved.

As a result of the NIN verification downtime, banks reported having challenges linking new account holders to their NINs, while Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are similarly unable to link customers’ SIM cards to their NIN records.

The problem has also affected the Nigerian Immigration Service, delaying passport processing for applicants who cannot complete the required verification steps.

Speaking anonymously on the negative impact of the development on the banking industry, the CEO of a prominent e-payment company based in Lagos,told Vanguard: “NIN verification or something has been down since last week. No activation of SIM cards nationwide. Is this not critical national infrastructure or it is just Internally Generated Revenue, IGR.

“We are currently piloting our smart mobility system and service in Enugu. We are unable to activate our 4G communication nodes in each of our vehicles. We’ve been stuck and unfortunately there are no alternative networks that one can use.

“Our only options are to borrow SIM cards and do dry runs. The telcos have not been able to activate SIM cards, a situation they attribute to the breakdown of the NIN verification portal.”

A visit by Vanguard correspondent to several banks in Abuja confirmed that many institutions are still grappling with the verification backlog. At a branch of Guaranty Trust Bank in Wuse 2, a staff of the bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity acknowledged that the problem has persisted since last week, leaving many customers unable to open new accounts or access their existing services.

“Yes, we have been having serious challenges with NIN verification since last week. We can’t open new accounts or even access some customers’ accounts because of this issue. Our work has slowed down significantly,” the staff member said. “Those in charge need to resolve this urgently because it’s affecting people and the economy negatively.”

Similarly, at Zenith Bank in the Federal Secretariat, customers were observed waiting in queues in anticipation of service restoration. Staff there confirmed the ongoing challenges, saying, “Since last week, NIN verification has remained a big issue. We don’t know when they will address it, but the sooner the better. This is not only affecting us, but also our customers whose livelihoods depend on our services.”

However, not all banks reported difficulties. At Access Bank in the Federal Secretariat, staff said their operations had been largely unaffected. “There may be issues with NIN verification elsewhere, but we have been opening new accounts since morning without problems today,” said Precious, a staff member at the branch.

In the telecommunications sector, service providers also confirmed disruptions. At an MTN office on Lagos Street in Garki 2, staff member Mariam Yusuf explained that their inability to verify NINs had stalled SIM registration and linkage since last week. “We have been facing this problem since last week and there is still no solution.

“NIMC said they are working on it but we have not seen any results. This is the same situation for other service providers,” she added. The story was not different in Globacom and Airtel offices also in Abuja.

Amid growing public frustration, NIMC has urged Nigerians to use an alternative verification method known as Tokenisation. This process, designed to enhance data privacy and security, allows certain services to verify a user’s identity without directly exposing their NIN.

However, adoption remains sketchy. Many institutions and users are unaware of the option or uncertain how to implement the novel solutions.

NIMC’s response

While efforts to reach NIMC’s official spokesperson, Dr. Kayode Adegoke, was unsuccessful, a NIMC staff member who spoke to Vanguard on condition of anonymity, said, “We have ongoing technical issues in our system,” one staff member told Vanguard on condition of anonymity.

However, NIMC in a statement on Friday said it has completed the technical maintenance exercise that caused disruption to services, and therefore had restored services to relieve millions of citizens and organisations reliant on the system.

The announcement from NIMC read in part: “We appreciate the understanding and cooperation of Nigerians as we worked to ensure a swift return to normalcy,”


Why disruption may continue - Telcos


Vanguard investigation however revealed that contrary to the claim of routine maintenance, NIMC had actually changed its former software vendor to a new one, mandating the telecom operators to automatically switch over to the new platform without prior consultation. A few telcos who spoke to Vanguard on condition of anonymity said the NIMC action was like an ambush and really set their operations back.

“In a sane clime, before this kind of thing happens, both the telcos and the banks should be put on notice early enough and the reason for dropping one vendor to another should be made explicit and if there are inputs, we can make. But, here, we were like being mandated to accept Bluesalt-the new vendor, whether we like it or not; and that is not good,” one of the telcos told Vanguard.

Confirming the above development, the umbrella body of the telcos, the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators in Nigeria, ALTON, issued a statement, clarifying that the frustrations subscribers were going through in completing transactions ranging from replacing lost SIM cards or activating new ones was not the fault of the telcos but that of NIMC due to a touted technical maintenance exercise.

Part of the statement jointly signed by the Chairman and Publicity secretary of the association, Engr Gbenga Adebayo and Damian Udeh respectively stated: “The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) wishes to inform the general public, our valued subscribers, and all stakeholders of a temporary disruption affecting SIM-related services across all mobile networks in Nigeria.

“This disruption follows a recent directive from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), mandating our Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) members to transition to a new identity verification platform. The migration process, which directly impacts real-time identity verification required for SIM registration, SIM replacement, Mobile Number Portability (MNP), and other related services, has introduced unforeseen technical challenges that are currently affecting service availability nationwide.

“While the new platform is intended to enhance the integrity and efficiency of identity management in Nigeria, unfortunately, the transition has temporarily impacted the ability of MNOs to deliver seamless SIM-related services.

“During this period, MNOs will not be able to support SIM Swap, SIM replacement, activation of new subscribers and other SIM-related services. We understand the inconvenience this may cause to millions of subscribers who depend on these services for communication, business, and daily activities. We sincerely apologize for the disruption and kindly advise subscribers to postpone visits to service centers for SIM-related transactions until further notice.

ALTON will continue to provide timely updates as the situation evolves, and remains committed to ensuring the delivery of secure, reliable, and high-quality telecommunications services to all Nigerians”.

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/07/nin-verification-portal-frustrates-banks-telcos-as-downtime-persists/

What Exactly Is Happening In Nigeria, Nawa o

Mr Blogger, Is Highly Not Happy, E Weak Me 😔

My NIN that I did, from the unset now they now told its expired, I don't understand this Nigerian government anymore.

This 30 characters of a thing is really annoying

columbus007:
My NIN that I did, from the unset now they now told its expired, I don't understand this Nigerian government anymore.

My Brother, Pray Everyday in your life that Nigeria should not happen to you.

columbus007:
My NIN that I did, from the unset now they now told its expired, I don't understand this Nigerian government anymore.

Expired? I doubt and if it's true this is a new.

It must be modification related problem and it takes more than a moment for the modification to be fixed, what they'll always tell you is to contact NIMC for further assistance.

post=136035654:
Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/07/nin-verification-portal-frustrates-banks-telcos-as-downtime-persists/

Nigeria IT scene is a mess. This type of challenge still persist is sign we are not yet there in IT

My own nin that I had corrected for about 5 years ago still resurfacing the error one instead to be deleted from the system and replace with corrected one.

Everything in the country is not working. The drivers license I applied for since February, it was Friday last week they called me for my CBT, I took the entire day off to go there at obalende, inside the rain that had been falling since the previous day, and encountered terrible traffic on Lekki-Epe express, my car was even bashed by one guy behind me, I sha arrived early and was asked to wait. I waited from 10am till 4pm only for them to say the portal is not going through and they are about closing, I was pissed, I literally canceled all my plans for that day for this, plus, using over 15k for fuel as I was coming from quite a distance. I decided not to waste the day and just go to oyingbo to do a few things in my car, only for me to be stopped by police on the road, I gave them my documents, everything was complete, except the license.

I explained to them but these men no gree hear o, they asked me to buy 10 liters of fuel for them, I no gree o, after we drag and drag, dem sha gree for 3 liters.

The police man was foolish enough to call his personal UBA account number for me to send the money, if ntt because na nice man, shey no be to put am for trouble now now?

jojothaiv:
Expired? I doubt and if it's true this is a new.

It must be modification related problem and it takes more than a moment for the modification to be fixed, what they'll always tell you is to contact NIMC for further assistance.

that's an extra time, extra cash, plus extra wahala join.

Tinubu and one chance governance... Incompetence rules supreme now

post=136035837:
My Brother, Pray Everyday in your life that Nigeria should not happen to you.

see my bro, this is really frustrating, I mean from the onset, I wanted to register sim, then I was told I can't. I shake my head.

This down time has affected my business for 3months plus now.
Money stucked in Gt bank with no solution.

This country is nothing but frustrating

What the heck! Nigeria jaga jaga one Chance government

columbus007:
that's an extra time, extra cash, plus extra wahala join.

I tell you.

Some things like the updating the ID database of a nation shouldn't be a tough nut to but wetin concern NIMC sha

jojothaiv:
Expired? I doubt and if it's true this is a new.

It must be modification related problem and it takes more than a moment for the modification to be fixed, what they'll always tell you is to contact NIMC for further assistance.

it's really alarming to think that even with the NIN I was still denied access to registering a sim card, was the NIN given to me by the government or I created it myself? And I don't know about so many others.

columbus007:
My NIN that I did, from the unset now they now told its expired, I don't understand this Nigerian government anymore.

Tinubulation is going on. It's tinubulating every aspect of the country.
This forty words thing ehhhhhjh

columbus007:
it's really alarming to think that even with the NIN I was still denied access to registering a sim card, was the NIN given to me by the government or I created it myself? And I don't know about so many others.

Nigeria as a country isn't well structured and we all know it, anything goes here.

It's pity that you can't even register a SIM card, tough times, I must say.

Are we re-registering again? Abi what's going to happen now

My serious contact can't do sim card welcome back because of nin issues.

Even their nimc app will tell you 'user not found' But why all thesem

The self modification platform is a joke.
An absolute joke.

This sure confirms that BVN & NIN records are linked!

What a shame. What a country. Terrible.

10 more characters needed

Any activity run by government us anything goes.
For a while now the site is in coma all in the name of maintenance

Cannot get passport

Cannot get SIM card

Cannot open bank account

And you want that country to move forward

You people better remove that NIN requirement or keep people suffering with self induced poverty

shogotermies:
This down time has affected my business for 3months plus now.
Money stucked in Gt bank with no solution.

This country is nothing but frustrating

NIN has not been down for 3 months tho, it's been like a couple of weeks max. What's your GTB account number?

moonraker:
The self modification platform is a joke.
An absolute joke.

Very big joke. I'm baffled at why they'd request police extract to change a phone number on the portal, everything should not be about generating IGR, now banks have been mandated to request for affidavit for account reactivation, another way to generate IGR for the soulless govt

yang:
Cannot get passport

Cannot get SIM card

Cannot open bank account

And you want that country to move forward

You people better remove that NIN requirement or keep people suffering with self induced poverty

Add all these to the fact that we just lost the opportunity to secure multiple entry visa to the U.A. Nigerians can now only apply for a 3 month max single entry visa...chaiiii....who do us this things!!!

The country is death. Before I dey look nigeria very highly more than 99% than others africans country but since I came back to nigeria 3wks again. meh now I know say nigeria still they 50yrs back. Nothing is working here. Go to bank network is down. Driving license network is down. Nin down. Sim down . Immigration office network is down etc. Nigeria wan kill me since oh aha. But begging you money network no dey down. This country no dey work oh, comot pride n shame nigeria is not working to speak the truth. We are just foaming because of pride 😤.