The Nigerian Communications Commission has proposed that telecom operators must give subscribers a minimum of 14 days’ notice before deactivating their SIM cards over inactivity or post-paid churn.
The proposal is contained in a consultation paper titled Stakeholders Consultation Process for the Telecoms Identity Risks Management Platform, dated February 2026 and published on the Commission’s website.
Under the proposed amendments to the Quality-of-Service Business Rules, the NCC stated that “prior to churning of a post-paid line, the Operator shall send a notification to the affected subscriber through an alternative line or an email on the pending churning of his line.”
It added, “This notification shall be sent at least 14 days before the final date for the churn of the number.
A similar provision was proposed for prepaid subscribers. The commission said, “prior to churning of a pre-paid line, the Operator shall send a notification to the affected subscriber through an alternative line or an email on the pending churning of his line,” stressing again that the notice “shall be sent at least 14 days before the final date for the churn of the number.”
Currently, under Section 2.3.1 of the QoS Business Rules, a subscriber line may be deactivated if it has not been used within six months for a Revenue Generating Event, and if inactivity persists for another six months, the subscriber may lose the number, except in cases of network-related faults.
