The Federal government has approved the activation of New subscriber identification module(SIM) Registration with Mandatory National Identity Number,NIN.
This will also be inline with the Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration
The implementation of the Policy will commence on Monday, 19th of April 2021.
The issuance of New SIMs and other suspended activities will resume on the same date, as long as verification is done and the guidelines are fully adhered to.
A statement signed by the Technical Assistant IT to Minister of Communications and Digital Economy ,Dr. Femi Adeluyi noted that Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003, Section 23(a), specifies the role of the Minister to include the formulation, determination and monitoring of the general policy for the communications sector.
“In line with this, on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami coordinated and led the development of a Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration in collaboration with all other stakeholders,” the statement said.
An earlier Policy was approved on the 4th of February 2020, while the Revised Policy was developed in early March 2021.
Revised Policy
The final amendments to the revised Policy based on the directives of Mr President to make the use of NIN mandatory for all SIM registration were completed yesterday, 14th of April, 2021.
Prior to that, the key aspects of the draft Policy were presented to the stakeholders at the 4th Review Meeting of the Ministerial Task Force (MTF) on the NIN-SIM registration which held on Friday, 26th of February, 2021.
Dr Pantami also presented the Revised Policy to President Muhammadu Buhari, on the 26th of March, 2021 who made further improvements and endorsed it for implementation.
The President also commended the Minister for his commitment in carrying out the responsibility of developing the digital economy sector, including championing the NIN-SIM registration process.
The Policy includes Guidelines on New SIM Acquisition and Activation, SIM Replacement, New SIM Activation for Corporates and Internet-of-Things/Machine-to-Machine (IoT/M2M), amongst others.
Hauwa Abu
