04 March 2025

In Benin, SIM cards not registered after 30 March 2025 will be deactivated from 30 April. This was decided by the Electronic Communications and Postal Regulatory Authority (ARCEP) during the last extraordinary session of its Council.

“Upon notification of this decision, electronic communications network operators will send a daily SMS notification indicating to the users concerned on their networks the timetable for the end of the process (end date of identification data update operations, date of receipt and date of deactivation of unidentified subscribers),” said ARCEP in a statement.

The Beninese authorities have imposed SIM registration to better protect telecom subscribers against fraud, scams and cybercrime in general by precisely identifying each user. This also allows them to better regulate the telecommunications sector.