Telecom
SIM Recycling Puts Nigerian Phone Users in Danger
IN August 2014, Kazeem Biriowo visited sales promotion event organised by the MTN in Ota, Ado/Odo/Ota Local Government Area in Ogun State.
Due to the enticing promotional benefits, he bought an MTN SIM card.
According to International Center for Investigative Reporting, (ICIR), right there, he did his Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) registration, data capturing as well as fingerprints.
ICIR is an independent, nonprofit news agency that seeks to promote transparency and accountability through robust and objective investigative reporting.
According to ICIR, surprisingly, months after, a subscriber, who seems to be a Lagos businessman, residing at the Bourdillion called claiming, he is the real owner of the line.
Prior to this time, clients of the businessman were communicating via text messages to the same line, oblivious of the fact that recipient of those messages is not actually their business partner.
This continued for a long time, until he resolved to discard the SIM card for a newly registered one.
“It appears the person is into freight business because his clients sent several credit alerts to the SIM,” Biriowo told The ICIR.
“For instance, someone once sent a message that he has just sent N100, 000 to his (businessman) account as part of N500, 000 payment so far made. So, to avoid impersonation, I decided to forgo the line.”
Inspite of his trouble, Biriowo bought another MTN line.
But, he was shocked to find out the new line he duly registered was also registered with name belonging to another person, after checking through the True Caller, a popular phone application used to verify people’s identity.
“I was surprised to see Nurse Awal,” he said.
Again, just last week someone called him and said, “Mr Man, this is my phone number. At this time, I was furious. So, I responded– Mr Man! You have called the wrong line”, says Biriowo. “He called again but I insisted the line is mine. So, he terminated the call.”
Why phone users may be at risk
Subscribers to the major telecommunication companies were randomly contacted. And findings showed that most of those who did SIM swap have experienced frustration due to SIM recycling capable of exposing users to danger.
On 7th January, Omoyele Sowore, the Sahara Reporters Publisher shared on his timeline how a man, Anthony Okolia was illegally detained for possessing a phone line he purchased years after it was allegedly abandoned by Hanan Buhari, daughter of Nigeria’s President.
It was discovered that the accused had earlier registered the SIM. Fortunately, he was still in possession of the payment receipt.
In fact, Okolia was allegedly detained for 10 weeks but later released through the effort of his lawyer when Buhari’s daughter refused to present herself to prove she is the rightful owner.
The incident generated some controversy. While some questioned legality of SIM swap, others expressed worry over unlawful detainment of the accused persons. There are several other Nigerians who have had similar SIM swap experience but not made their complaints public.
Last year December, Adeleke Adewolu, NCC Executive Commissioner on Stakeholder Management (ECSM) attributed illegal SIM swaps as being responsible for the highest cyber threats recorded in the telecom sector.
But, based on Biriowo’s observation, anyone who buys a phone line which starts with 08033, for instance in 2018 and above could have bought a swapped line. The original owner could be dead or the SIM card stolen, thus such SIM may have been recycled, he suggested.
While this may be entirely true, The ICIR also discovered that mobile phone lines which have been inactive for three months are mostly considered moribund by telecom firms.
It was also discovered that some of the operators would often send a short message to subscribers after the third month to verify the line’s activeness. The concerned persons are then advised to recharge a certain amount; otherwise, the line will be re-cycled.
An alternative scenario is such that mobile SIM cards are mostly produced in batches such as from 0803, 0806, 0813 etc for the MTN. Globacom phone number prefix started with O805, 0807, 0705…etc while Airtel is 0802, 0902, 0701, 0808, 0708, etc. The trend further applies to the other telecom network operators.
As such, while new SIMS are produced, unused ones are recycled but with likely grave consequences to subscribers.
More sordid experience
A journalist who sought anonymity while sharing his experience told The ICIR how he registered his SIM card in Lagos at a roadside outlet believed to be an accredited Airtel agent. He had used the same active SIM for years until he moved to Abuja.
“Those guys captured me. They did my fingerprint and collected every data…” he said.
At the advent of the 4G network, he decides to upgrade his SIM card at the Airtel office situated within the Central Business District (CBD). But he was shocked when he got a surprising response at the counter – his line belongs to someone else.
“When I wanted to change to 4G last month, I went to the Airtel office at Shoprite in Musa Yardua and I was told to write down my name. I did that, but after he checked, I was told it is assigned to another name.
“It is my active line. In fact, I abandoned another line for it. So that’s not possible,” he argued, yet in a state of confusion. But, the telecom operator official affirmed, “that’s what the record shows.” It was same experience with Biriowo, the earlier complainant.
The senior journalist was later advised to re-register the number in his name before he could migrate to 4G. And he was told he would wait another one month before the migration could happen.
Cyber immunity is gaining traction as essential defence for everyday Nigerians facing surging online scams, phishing attacks, and SIM swap fraud that now target ordinary smartphone users.
Once limited to corporations, threats like fake bank alerts, WhatsApp investment links, and account takeovers have infiltrated daily digital life, outpacing basic antivirus and passwords.
Digital Immune System for Resilience
Cyber immunity integrates devices, apps, and user habits to prevent, detect, and recover from breaches, mimicking a body’s immune response rather than relying solely on firewalls.
Modern smartphones exemplify this with instant app restrictions, suspicious site warnings, and secure hardware for payments and biometrics, curbing damage from human errors like clicking bad links.
In Nigeria’s fintech-driven economy—banking, shopping, education online—individuals lag behind banks in security, making consistent vigilance critical.
Practical Steps Build Personal Defences
Key actions include password managers with 2FA and biometrics, automatic updates for vulnerability patches, cautious browsing (verify URLs, shun urgent requests), and routine data backups to cloud or external drives.
Ignoring updates to save data heightens risks on dominant Android devices, while messaging app scams demand wariness.
Technology aids via OS behaviour detection and isolation, reducing third-party app reliance for safer defaults.
As Nigeria’s digital expansion accelerates, cyber immunity shifts security from one-off setups to ongoing habits, averting minor scares from escalating to major losses.
Renowned digital innovation expert, Prof. Chris Uwaje, has celebrated Leo Stan Ekeh as a visionary “digital anticipator” and pioneer on the occasion of his 70th birthday.
Leo Stan Ekeh
In a heartfelt tribute, Uwaje hailed Ekeh as the “Saint Leo of all Stars from the Ekeh Universe,” saluting his masterclass contributions to human innovation, development, and global youth empowerment.
Visionary Impact on Africa, World
Uwaje praised Ekeh’s foresight, emotional intelligence, and resilience in transforming digital entrepreneurship, creating millions of jobs, billions in economic value, and expanded education access worldwide.
The encomium spotlighted Ekeh’s trailblazing solutions driving sustainable development, employment, and economic growth across Africa and beyond.
“Your legacy continues to shape a brighter future,” Uwaje noted, adding that Ekeh’s “extraordinary best is yet to come” as the “Field-Marshall of ANTICIPATORS.”
Cheers to More Foresighted Legacy
Uwaje declared: “From the gaze into the digital cloud: ‘the world ain’t seen nothing yet’!” while toasting Ekeh as the “true digital Conqueror of Africa and the world.”
The tribute underscores Ekeh’s enduring influence in digital disruption, innovation, and youth-focused initiatives that continue to inspire global progress.
Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria is positioning as a regional Internet Exchange hub for West Africa in terms of infrastructure and traffic. Muhammed Rudman, chief executive officer, IXPN, stated this at its 2026 members engagement forum held in Lagos. He noted some of the major milestone IXPN achieved last year to include one terabit of traffic recorded in March 2025.
“At that time, we became the 63rd internet exchange point in the world. Among all the exchanges in Europe and America and in the entire world, we become the number 63 in the world. To achieve that one terabit of traffic. Again, we were able to achieve two terabits of traffic within seven, eight months of the year.
“We achieve this by ensuring that we push for members to upgrade, those that were on 1 Gig to 10 Gig, those on 10 Gig to 100 Gig. We had a strategic infrastructure upgrade across our networks, put 400 Gig enable switches, increase our fiber links to all the data centers and we onboarded 17 new members last year. All the trainings and the operational excellence ensured that our network is up and running 24/7,” he said.
Industry Impact
The impact of that one terabit traffic is data sovereignty. “We were able to domesticate. Based on the survey we conducted, 54% of our members said that they are exchanging 50% of their traffic and above locally, which is really, significant one.
“We are also setting up a benchmark for other African IXPs. I can assure you that in all the community driven internet exchange points in Africa, we are the number one. There’s a community driven internet exchange point in South Africa that was established 10 years before IXPN. There is one in Kenya that was established 6 years before IXPN, but we are way ahead of them when it comes to internet traffic.
“We are also promoting intra African connectivity. As at today, we have customers from Niger, from, Burkina Faso, trying to reach to Nigeria. Recently, we onboarded a very large company in Ivory Coast, to connect to Nigeria.
“Gradually, Nigeria is tilting towards becoming the regional hub for West Africa, where you see Internet Service Providers coming to achieve that. And in terms of the traffic, in 2015 we were at four Gigabits per second. It moves to 21 in 2017 and 52 gigabits per second.
“But by the year 2023 it has reached 540 gigabits. By 2024 we have reached 900 gigabits. But by the end of 2025 we have achieved the two terabits of traffic”.
Network Infrastructure Development
Some of the technical feet IXPN achieved includes, deployment of sFlow; which is a peer to peer traffic analysis. “We’re able to see what members are exchanging between themselves and between the data centers, not the actual content or information, but rather the volume of traffic, and also between our data centers. And based on this, we’re able to do the upgrades.
“We did a multiple link upgrades from 300 Gigabits last year from Digital Realty to Equinix. It was 300 Gig as at the end of 2024, and by 2025, we’ve increased that to 500 gigabits per second. Digital Realty to Rack Center, it was 200 Gigabits per second. We also upgraded that to 500 Gigabits per second.
Open Access Data Centre to Equinix. We’ve upgraded from 20 Gigabits per second to 200 Gigabits per second. We always monitor the ports, and based on that, we increase immediately we reach the threshold of 80%.
“We did an upgrade on the IXP manager. This allows each member to have a login portal to see the traffic they are exchanging and other details, the port as well as to do their own configuration,” he added.
Technical Project Milestones
Microsoft connected cache. “We deployed Microsoft content cache and that has been deployed in Lagos. It was 25 Gigabits per second as of 2024 by 2025 we had to upgrade the infrastructure to 75 Gigabits per second servers, that will be able to accommodate all the Microsoft updates they are doing, exports, download and among others.
“This is part of the content that Microsoft is not providing locally, but we got those servers deployed, and our intention is by next year to see how we can replicate this across the country. Last year, we also deployed the same server in Abuja so that the Abuja people and the Kano people can reach that content without coming back to Lagos.
The Google Global Cache (GGC); “We are hosting all these at IXPN. We also upgraded from 53 Gigabits per second servers in 2024 to 153 Gigabits per second. And this is a huge traffic of YouTube. And as we speak, we are also working towards upgrading those servers,” he explained.
Strategic Partnerships
“We signed an MoU last year between us and an IXP in Senegal, when we went for West African peering forum. A lot of African ISPs are looking to us to see how we can guide them and support them.
“For example, internet exchange point from Gabon, internet exchange point from Rwanda and ISPs in Africa are looking at us as a model to copy, and we tend to support them. We also had a strategic partnership with CIRA, the Canada Internet Registry Association, which is similar to Nira, the Nigerian Internet Registration Association, to have their secondary authoritative servers into Nigeria as an anycast instance. And when they are hosting that, they are hosting other top-level domains as well, like alibaba.info.org.ca, are also hosted with us.
“Since they launched last year, we have seen a traffic of over 1000 DNS responses per second. Presently, there are 13 global root servers in the world, and those 13 servers are the ones that translate your IP address into a domain name. Any website you browse, you put a domain name, it translates into an IP address and its chain of referrals, Nigeria has.ng as a country, called Top Level Domain”.
Earlier in his welcome address, Charles Nmeregini, Business Development Manager, IXPN, said that the members engagement forum is more than an annual country. “Today, we pause to celebrate the milestone, the milestone that we have reached together, the milestone that have bolstered our local traffic exchange, reduce latency and significantly lower the cost of Internet access across the nations and beyond.
“However, today is equally about the horizon. It is a strategic moment as we unveil our 2026 service road map, a forward-looking rubbing designed to deepen interconnection, enhance service delivery and unlock new value across the ecosystem. In an era defined by rapid technological shift, standing still is not an option.
“This forum will spotlight exclusive, strategic business opportunities, new avenues for growth, enhanced pairing capabilities and innovative service model tailored to give your organization a competitive edge. We are not just exchanging data, we are exchanging ideas that will drive the next wave of Nigeria digital economy,” he added.
NITDA, Abia Partner on Enterprise Architecture Reform
Interswitch Partners Abia to Digitise Public Hospitals
Cyber Immunity Emerges as Shield for Nigerians Amid Rising Scams
$214Bn Missing, Institutions Silent: Is Accountability Dead in Nigeria?
Zinox Technologies and TD Africa Forge Strategic Partnership to Revolutionize African Tech Ecosystem
Nigeria’s 9 Top FinTech Firms Valued at $10.6Bn in January 2026
Kaspersky Launches OT Calculator to Align Cybersecurity Investments with Business Goals
CBN Upgrades Licences of Opay, Moniepoint, Kuda, Palmpay, Paga to National Status
NITDA, NBC Explore Strategic Collaboration on Digital Transformation, Media Regulation
Accidental Billionaire Opts for Jail Instead of Returning Money Credited Him by Mistake
Telecom2 days agoGroup Condemns Gabon’s Social Media Shutdown Amid Protests
E-Financial3 days agoACAMB Educates Content Creator to Curb Misinformation on Bank Recapitalisation
General News2 days agoHow JustMarkets Is Empowering African Traders with Global Market Access
E-Business2 days agoMutual Benefits Assurance Settles ₦5.9bn Claims in January 2026
Telecom2 days agoIXPN Positions as the Regional Internet Exchange Hub for West Africa
Telecom2 days agoMenxtt NG Emerges as Nigeria’s Virtual IT Hub for Premium Devices, Solutions
E-Business2 days agoNITDA DG Reaffirms FG Commitment to Responsible and Inclusive AI
Broadcasting2 days agoPheelz Shares His Journey on Glo-Sponsored African Voices