The National Identity Management Commission on Friday said its National Identification Number verification portal is working, despite complaints by telecom subscribers and operators about continued service disruption.

Many Nigerians in recent weeks have expressed frustration over their inability to retrieve their phone numbers or complete SIM-related services due to what they described as a prolonged downtime on the NIMC verification platform.

In Africa’s most populous nation, SIM swap requires verifying your identity, typically by linking your NIN. This helps prevent fraud and unauthorised access to your mobile line.

The disruption, which began the previous week, lingered through the weekend even after NIMC announced that its services had been restored.

A subscriber, Francis Onwu, posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, “Please, what is the issue between NIMC and the Nigeria Communications Commission? My phone was stolen about two weeks ago, and each time I visit MTN and Airtel Nigeria, they tell me there is a downtime with the NIN portal.”

Responding to the complaint, Airtel Nigeria wrote on its official handle, “Please be informed that the National Identity Number portal is currently unavailable. This is temporarily affecting our ability to process SIM swap requests on the Airtel network. We understand how important this service is to you and sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

The telco later posted a follow-up message, saying the NIN portal remained unavailable and efforts were ongoing to restore access.

However, NIMC has denied that the fault is from its end. The commission’s Head of Corporate Communications, Kayode Adegoke, told Saturday PUNCH that the portal was accessible and that the problem may be with the telecom operators.

“Our portal is up and running. It’s the same portability that other critical agencies are using for verification and modification,” Adegoke said.

Last week, the commission announced that it had completed a scheduled maintenance exercise and restored full access to its services nationwide.

“NIMC wishes to inform the general public that the recent technical maintenance has been completed and all services have been restored,” the commission said in a statement.

The agency advised Nigerians seeking to enrol for NIN to visit its website to locate the nearest enrolment centre and encouraged the public to use its self-service portal for data modifications.

NIMC also urged users to download its NameAuth app (oath.app), available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, to verify and authenticate their NINs.

Despite these assurances, mobile users continue to face difficulties in accessing basic telecom services linked to NIN verification, particularly SIM replacement.