By our reporter| The Federal Government on Tuesday extended the linkage of the National Identity Number (NIN) to Subscriber Identity Modules (SIM) by eight weeks.
The extension was contained in a statement signed by spokespersons of the Nigerian Communications Commission and the Nigeria Identity Management Commission.
According to the statement, which was dated February 1, the extension was approved by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami.
The statement read in part, “Dr. Pantami stated that the extension is to give Nigerians and legal residents more time to integrate their NIN with the SIM.”
The new deadline for the exercise is now April 6.
The joint statement further stated that a total of 56.18 million NINs have been collected by the mobile network operators, “a significant increase when compared with the 47.8 million reported by the Technical Committee on January 18, 2021.”
The federal government on December 15, 2020, declared that after December 30, 2020, all SIMs that were not registered with valid NINs on the network of telecommunications companies would be blocked, a move that drew backlash from several quarters over its timing as thousands flock to registration centres, flouting COVID-19 directives.
It later extended the December 30, 2020 deadline and gave three weeks’ extension for subscribers with NIN from December 30, 2020, to January 19, 2021.
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