The Federal government has approved the extension of period of the National Identity Number -Subscriber Identification Module ,(NIN-SIM)linkage to the 6th of May, 2021 as NIN-registration process records over fifty one million people have been assigned NINs.
The approval was give at a the meeting of the Ministerial Task Force on the NIN-SIM data linkage chaired by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami.
In a joint statement by Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde
and Head, Corporate Communications,National Identity Management Commission,Mr Kayode Adegoke said the request for the extension was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari and he endorsed it.
According to the statement”Based on the updates of the NIN-registration process, over 51 million people have been assigned NINs. There are many people who have enrolled and are in the process of being assigned NINs. With each individual having an average of 3 to 4 SIMs, the total number of SIMs tied to NINs would be close to the total number of registered SIMs in the country”
“The current number of monthly enrollments has increased significantly to about 2.6 million registrations. There has also been a remarkable increase in the number of enrollment centres across the country with about 3,800 centres available for enrollments . There are also many more new centres in the pipeline”
The Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission( EFCC) Abdulrasheed Bawa also addressed the meeting and stated that” the NIN-SIM linkage would support the Federal Government in checkmating the activities of fraudsters and cybercriminals”.
The Minister noted that 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.
Dr Pantami thanked Nigerians for their patience and compliance with the Federal Government’s directive on the NIN-SIM registration exercise.
He also 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.
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