Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has announced that the meeting of the Ministerial Task Force on the NIN-SIM data linkage has given approval to extend the period of the controversial linkage of the National Identity Number (NIN) to Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) cards by one month to the 6th of May, 2021.
A statement by Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, Director, Public Affairs of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in Abuja, said that the request for “the extension was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari and he endorsed it”.
It noted that based on the updates of the NIN-registration process, more than 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,” it said.
It explained that the current number of monthly enrolments has increased significantly to about 2.6 million registrations and that there has also been a remarkable increase in the number of enrolment centres across the country with about 3,800 centres available for enrolments.
“There are also many more new centres in the pipeline,” it said.
The statement stated that the Minister, who chaired the meeting, noted in his remarks, 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.
The Minister commended Nigerians for their patience and compliance with the federal government’s directive on the NIN-SIM registration exercise 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.
In his address at the meeting, the Chairman of the EFCC said that the NIN-SIM linkage would support the Nigerian government in checkmating the activities of fraudsters and cybercriminals.
The meeting, which took place on Thursday, April 1, 2021, 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 were the NCC Executive Commissioners Technical Services and StakeholderManagement, MD/CEOs of MTN, Airtel, EMTS (9Mobile), NTEL, Spectranet and SMILE, as well as the COO of Glo.
GIK/APA