The Federal Government has extended NIN and SIM card linkage deadline from April to 6th May, 2021.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami disclosed this in a meeting of the Ministerial Task Force on the NIN-SIM data linkage, which chaired on Abuja.
The meeting was attended by key stakeholders, including the EVC/CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission, DG/CEO of the National Identity Management Commission, DG/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency and Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Also present at the meeting were 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.
According to the minister, the request for the extension was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari and he endorsed it.
On the updates of the NIN-registration process, the meeting confirmed that , 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 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 enrolment centres across the country with about 3,800 centres available for enrollments . There are also many more new centres in the pipeline,” said the minister.
The minister also emphasised 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.
He thank Nigerians for their patience and compliance with the Federal Government’s directive on the NIN-SIM registration exercise. He 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 Chairman of the EFCC who addressed the meeting stated that the NIN-SIM linkage would support the Federal Government in checkmating the activities of fraudsters and cybercriminals.
The Federal Government had earlier extended the NIN-SIM linkage deadline to April 6, 2021 following a widespread protested that greeted the initial time line.