Nigeria, Feb. 5 -- The federal government's decision to suspend the sales of new SIM cards has left many Nigerians without livelihoods, as it has forced small businesses that worked as agents for big telecom firms to either shut down or scale back on their activities.

Business owners and traders who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said the decision has affected their revenue badly over the last two months and has made them cut their staff strength.

The federal government had last December ordered the suspension of the sales and activation of new SIM cards across all phone networks in the country as it directed Nigerians to quickly connect their phone lines to their National Identification Numbers (NIN).

The suspension was expected to last till ...