The Federal Government has announced an extension to the ongoing National Identification Number and Subscriber Identity Module integration exercise till June 30, 2021.
This was contained in a statement jointly signed by the Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission, Ikechukwu Adinde; and the Head, Corporate Communications, National Identity Management Commission, Kayode Adegoke.
Minister of Communications and Digital Econony, Isa Ali Pantami, who has been under fire of late over his past pro-Taliban radical comments, was also said to have disclosed that 54 million Nigerians have obtained their NIN.
The statement was titled, ‘NIN Enrolment Reaches 54 Million as FG Approves 30th of June as NIN-SIM Verification Deadline’.
It said the decision was taken at a virtual meeting attended by Pantami, as well as the Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Adeolu Akande; the Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of NCC, Umar Dambatta; and the Director-General/CEO of NIMC, Aliyu Azeez.
“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.
“Significant progress has been made in the NIN-SIM verification process. For example, almost 54 million have obtained their NIN and this can translate to up to 190 million mobile numbers, sine empirical evidence suggests that each unique NIN maps to 3 to 4 phone lines,” the statement partly read.
On December 15, 2020, the Federal Government declared that after December 30, 2020, all SIMs that were not registered with valid NINs on the network of telecommunications companies would be blocked.
It later extended the December 30, 2020 deadline following widespread opposition against the earlier announcement and gave three weeks’ extension for subscribers with NIN from December 30, 2020, to Ja,January 19, 2021.
It gave six weeks’ extension for subscribers without NIN from December 30, 2020, to Fe,bruary 9, 2021, and f, further issued an eight weeks extension on February 2, 2021, but m, any organisations had called for a further r deadline extension or outright suspension of the NIN registration process.
