Assigning of phone numbers
Nigeria is a country with an overwhelming population which makes the country a great market for most goods.
During President Olusegun Obasanjo’s era as the president of the country, he was deliberate about the technological advancement of the country.
This led to the attraction of a multinational telecommunication brand called MTN in the year 2000 which was responsible for internet connectivity of the country at the time before Glo, Etisalat, Airtel and a lot of other mobile networks came into the country.
Nigerians and the routine loss of their phone numbers.
On the 9th of January 2025, we published an article captioned “MTN Nigeria; aiding fraud and criminality against Nigerians based overseas?” wherein we spoke extensively about the plight of a Nigerian who went to bed in the United Kingdom only to wake up 24 hours later to realize that he had lost access to his phone number.
This meant that he could no longer have access to his bank SMS alerts and most strikingly his WhatsApp and other social media applications.
At the first instance, the young man who no longer had access to his WhatsApp and other social media apps suspected that internet fraudsters had compromised his account and as such, he blocked all his bank applications to avoid any unauthorized transactions.
After a thorough investigation and speaking to friends, it dawned on him that the phone number had already been reassigned to another client in Nigeria and the person was already using the phone number.
How to prevent having your phone number reassigned even after you leave Nigeria.
After thorough investigation, we have come to understand that there is stipulated duration of time that a phone number would be left inactive after which it would be reassigned to another subscriber.
In the interest of any subscriber who relocates from Nigeria, your best bet remains activating the Keep My Number service to safeguard your phone number. This service would protect you the subscriber from losing your phone number even if you stay out of the country for as long as you are disposed to.
Keep my number service codes for the various networks.
The codes for the various networks are listed below; MTN – *365#, Airtel – *494#, 9Mobile – *539#, Glo – *301# or *777#.