A lifeline has been thrown to mobile subscribers in Nigeria whose Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards were blocked at the end of last month.

In a statement on Tuesday, the The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said it has opened a SIM card ‘registration window’ for such subscribers to register their lines.

This follows appeals by subscribers and consumer bodies for the extension of the June 30 registration deadline owing to alleged problems that characterised the exercise.

NCC spokesperson, Reuben Muoka, said subscribers whose lines had been blocked can activate them at the telecommunications companies.

The commission had on June 30 mandated all telecoms companies in the country to block all unregistered SIM cards in the country.

The commission also threatened to sanction any operator that failed to blocked unregistered lines on its network.

The directive, according to the commission, was to enable the country to among other things, address its security challenges.

And with the registration window that has been opened up post-deadline, the president of the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS), Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, has welcomed the lifeline that the NCC has thrown subscribers.

NATCOMS and the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria have been at the forefront of calls to extend the registration deadline.

While the number of deactivated cards could not be ascertained, over 100 million Nigerians have SIM cards according to research from the likes of BuddeComm.