Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, has warned that failure to register for National Identification Number (NIN) will attract 14 years Imprisonment if phone number is used for transactions.
Pantami therefore, disclosed that as of Wednesday, 51 million National Identity Numbers have been fully enrolled.
Pantami who spoke at the weekly State House Press Briefing at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday, added that 189 million Subscriber Identification Modules have been registered in the country out of which 150 million registrations have been completed.
The others, he said, had issues of improper registration.
Pantami stressed that it is now a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment for any Nigerian to transact business like open a bank account, pay taxes among others without having NIN.
He said Nigerians without NIN risked 14 years imprisonment as stipulated by the Constitution.
However, the ongoing NIN and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) integration exercise has been extended by 8 weeks, with a new deadline of April 6, 2021.
It is yet to be known if the April 6 date would be be extended again as some Nigerians are yet to be successful in the ongoing registration.
