The Federal Government has extended the deadline for the ongoing integration exercise of the National Identification Number (NIN) with the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) till June 30, 2021.
This was announced in a statement jointly signed by the Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, and Head, Corporate Communications, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Mr. Kayode Adegoke.
According to the statement, the decision to extend the deadline for the NIN-SIM linkage was reached during a virtual meeting chaired by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami and attended by Chairman of NCC, Prof Adeolu Akande.
Other individuals in attendance at the virtual meeting are; the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof Umar Garba Dambatta and the Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Aliyu Azeez.
According to the statement, about 54 million Nigerians with an estimated 190 million mobile numbers have completed the SIM verification process, however, there is still need to extend the deadline “in order to make it easier for all citizens and legal residents to register.”
The statement reads; “The postponement of the deadline was also based on the request by stakeholders for an extension till 30th of June in order to make it easier for all citizens and legal residents to register.
“Significant progress has been made in the NIN-SIM verification process. For example, almost 54 million people have obtained their NIN and this can translate to up to 190 million mobile numbers since empirical evidence suggests that each unique NIN maps to 3 to 4 phone lines.”
The Ministry which stated that the NIN is similar to the social security number and the national insurance number in the United States and the United Kingdom respectively, added that it is important for accessing public services in line with sections 27 and 29 of the NIMC Act, 2007.
The statement added; “The much-awaited Android enrolment system is now ready for deployment and this has the potential to significantly accelerate the speed and ease of enrolments.
“Furthermore, the telecom providers and other enrolment agents have also opened several centres across the country to make it easier for eligible citizens and residents to obtain and link their NINs.
“The Federal Government has approved the extension as part of its effort to make it easier for its citizens and residents to obtain the NIN and it is important to take advantage of the extension.
“Dr. Pantami wishes to thank Nigerians for their patience and compliance with the Federal Government’s directive on the NIN-SIM registration exercise. He again reiterated the government’s commitment to continue taking decisions aimed at easing the pains of the citizens with regard to issues related to NIN and SIM registration.”
Recall that the Federal Government had on December 15, 2020, announced a 15-day ultimatum for the NIN-SIM linkage exercise, which elapsed on December 30, 2020.
However, the federal government later postponed the deadline to January 19, 2021 after the initial deadline generated barrage of reactions from Nigerians.
The federal government also gave another six weeks’ extension for subscribers without NIN from December 30, 2020, to February 9, 2021, and further issued an eight weeks extension on February 2, 2021.
Following the expiration of the February 2 deadline, the FG further extended it to April 6 and later extended it to May 6, 2021.
