The Nigerian government has announced the extension of the deadline given for the NIN-SIM linkage by 8 weeks. The deadline, originally set for February 9, will now end on the April 6.
On the 15th of December, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) instructed mobile operators in the country, MTN, Airtel, Glo and 9 Mobile, to block all SIMs without National Identification Numbers (NINs) from their networks as from 31 December 2020.
The announcement was made by Dr. Isa Ibrahim (Pantami), the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy in Nigeria at a taskforce meeting held on the 1st of February.
According to the statement, 58.16 million NINs have been collected by the mobile network operators. It further stated that “each NIN is usually tied to 3 to 4 SIMs and this infers that the current figure accounts for a significant portion of the existing SIMs.”
NIMC stated that over 1060 registration centres for NIN have been activated and made operational across the country. Even the mobile operators have been engaged to get involved in the NIN registration.
In 2019, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said that registration of new Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards required the presentation of the National Identity Number (NIN). The body noted that the move became necessary following the rising criminality in the country.
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