Nigerian Farmers Say MTN’s Unregistered SIMs Aid Boko Haram
- MTN says valid customers are selling cards to unknown users
- Regulator working with operators to ease security threat
A vendor holds mobile phones and airtime scratch cards at a Mobile Money stall operated by MTN Group Ltd.
Photographer: Will Boase/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Farmers in northern Nigeria have called on wireless operators including MTN Group Ltd. to block SIM cards that haven’t been formally registered by their users, saying they enable the operations of Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
“We will stage a protest against MTN and take necessary legal action if it fails to comply with this directive within 48 hours,” Mohammed Sani, the head of the region’s association of small-holder farmers, said in an emailed statement Monday.