Subscribers of MTN Nigeria will have to appear in person if they want to swap or replace their SIM cards, say MTN officials.

Senior officials at MTN say the decision has been taken to protect customers’ data and preserve the overall integrity of Nigeria’s SIM swap process.

Effective immediately, customers who want to swap or replace their SIM cards as a result of their phones being stolen, destroyed or mislaid must do so in person, says MTN.

MTN corporate services executive, Akinwale Goodluck, explained that in recent months, ‘deceitful clients’ subscribers have allegedly abused a ‘proxy SIM swap process’.

Incidents of unauthorised people fraudulently obtaining SIM cards belonging to others have occurred, he said.

“The implication of this decision is that customers will now have to appear in person at the service outlets nearest to them to request and obtain new SIM cards.

"Such requests will be treated promptly after proper ID validation from the SIM registration database, and upon presentation of valid identification such as ID card, international passport or driver’s licence,” said Goodluck at a press conference in Lagos.

MTN Nigeria is the largest mobile network operator in the country with over 60 million network subscribers. Nigeria has a population of 162 million, according to the World Bank.