The federal government has extended the National Identification Number, NIN and SIM linkage by one month.
This was announced at a meeting of Ministerial Task Force with statekeholders chaired by The Honourable Minister Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami in Abuja on April 1,2021.
In a statement jointly signed by the Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission , NCC Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde and Head Corporate Communications, National Identity Management Commission, Mr Kayode Adegoke states that an approval was given to extend the period of the NIN-SIM linkage to the 6th of May, 2021 adding that request for the extension was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari who endorsed it.
It also states that based on the updates of the NIN-registration process, over 51 million people have been assigned NINs and there are many people who have enrolled and are in the process of being assigned NINs and with each individual having an average of 3 to 4 SIMs, the total number of SIMs tied to NINs would close to the total number of registered SIMs in the country.
It states that the current number of monthly enrollments has increased significantly to about 2.6 million registrations and there has also been a remarkable increase in the number of enrolment centres across the country with about 3,800 centres available for enrollments.
It also noted that the Chairman of the EFCC who addressed the meeting stated that the NIN-SIM linkage would support the Federal Government in checkmating the activities of fraudsters and cybercriminals while the Minister communications and Digital Economy Dr Isah Pantammi says the importance of obtaining feedback from all stakeholders in order to ensure that the NIN-SIM linkage process is one that cannot easily be compromised and reiterated government’s commitment to continually taking decisions aimed at easing the pains of the citizens with regard to issues related to NIN and SIM registration.
The meeting was attended by key stakeholders, including the EVC/CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), DG/CEO of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), DG/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Representative of the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON). Others included the NCC Executive Commissioners Technical Services and Stakeholder Management, MD/CEOs of MTN, Airtel, EMTS (9Mobile), NTEL, Spectranet and SMILE, as well as the COO of Glo.
