Nigerians whose SIM cards are not linked to their National Identity Number (NIN), a mandatory digital ID system, won't be able to make phone calls, starting this week. The partial block is a tone down from the previous threat of a total block.

The National Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) released a joint statement saying they were not going to postpone the deadline again. Initially, the deadline was December 31, 2020; it has been postponed ten times since then, with the latest postponed deadline being March 31, 2020.