If your old phone number gets recycled and handed to a stranger, that stranger could end up receiving the codes your bank sends you. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says banks can already check whether a recycled phone number has changed hands, and it now wants other companies that use phone numbers to do the same.
The short version
The NCC is working with the Central Bank of Nigeria to widen a system that flags recycled and suspicious phone numbers beyond banks. You can protect yourself now by keeping your lines active and updating your bank when you change numbers.
- The NCC’s executive vice chairman, Aminu Maida, announced the plan at the 95th Telecom Consumer Parliament in Lagos on Oct. 20.
- The system is called the Telecoms Identity Risk Management System, or TIRMS.
- Under NCC’s current rules, a line can be cut off after six months with no paid use, and the number can be lost after six more months.
- The NCC has also proposed that networks warn you at least 14 days before a line is taken back.
- No date has been given for the wider rollout, so treat it as a plan for now.
What the NCC announced
Speaking in Lagos on Oct. 20, Aminu Maida said the NCC is working with the Central Bank of Nigeria to extend the system to other sectors that use phone numbers to identify customers. “A phone number has also become part of our digital identity,” he said.
The system, TIRMS, lets organisations check whether a number has been recycled, swapped or flagged for fraud before they trust it. Under an agreement the NCC and the CBN signed on April 20, banks and other financial firms can already run that check, the NCC says. The next step would bring in more of the places that send you codes or log you in by phone number. The NCC has not given a date or named the sectors.
The real shift: your phone number has quietly become a key to your money, your pension and your online accounts. Until now, a recycled number could carry that key to a stranger. This system is meant to make companies notice when the person behind a number has changed.
How a recycled phone number can be used against you
When you stop using a line, the network eventually takes the number back and can give it to someone new. If your bank, betting account, pension portal or shopping app still has that old number on file, the new owner may start getting your one-time codes and password reset texts. That is one of the routes fraudsters use to take over accounts, alongside SIM swap fraud.
How long before a number is recycled
Here is how a number gets recycled. The NCC set out the timeline, and one proposed change, in its consultation paper on TIRMS in February. The first two points and line parking are current rules. The 14-day notice is still a proposal, and the NCC has not announced final rules:
- A line can be deactivated after six months with no paid activity, such as paid calls, texts or data.
- If it stays inactive for another six months, the number can be lost for good.
- Proposed: your network would have to notify you at least 14 days before your line is taken back, by another line or by email.
- If you will be away for a good reason, such as travel, you can ask your network to “park” your line.
What to do now
- Keep every line you use for banking active. Make a paid call, send a text or buy a small data bundle every few months.
- Change your number at the bank before you drop the old one. Do the same for your BVN-linked accounts, pension, mobile money and any app that sends you codes.
- Moving abroad or going quiet for a while? Ask your network about line parking before you go, so the number is not reassigned while you are away.
- Use an authenticator app where you can. Codes from an app stay on your phone, not on your number, so a recycled line cannot catch them.
- Check your phone too. The NCC is also checking handsets, so it is worth confirming your phone is NCC approved.
If your network fails you on a complaint, the NCC says to get a complaint reference number from the network first, then escalate to the NCC on its toll-free line, 622. We explain when you are owed compensation in our guide to network outages in Nigeria.
