Telecommunications companies say they have disconnected over 40 million subscribers who did not present their National Identity Numbers in line with Nigeria’s Subscribers Identification Module and NIN linkage policy.

The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.

This represents a 28 million surge from the 12 million telephone lines initially planned to be deactivated by telcos.

Adebayo said the second tier of disconnections that will happen are subscribers who have provided NIN but have more than five Mobile Subscription Identification Numbers associated with their NIN, and these have not been verified.