Nigeria Federal Government Extends NIN-SIM Linkage Deadline By 8 Weeks
The ongoing National Identification Number (NIN) and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) integration exercise has been extended by 8 weeks, with a new deadline of April 6, 2021. This message was conveyed by the Honorable Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim during the meeting of the Ministerial Taskforce on NIN-SIM registration which held on the 1st of February 2021.
Dr. Pontami stated that the extension is to give Nigerians and legal residents more time to integrate their NIN with the sim.
The meeting was chaired by the Honorable Minister and attended by key stakeholders, including the CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) of the National Identity Management commission (NIMC) of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NIDA) and the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operations of Nigeria (ALTON).
It was reported that a total of 56.18 million NINs have been collected by the mobile network operators. Each NIN is usually tied to an average of 3 to 4 Sims and this infers that the current figure accounts for a significant portion of the existing Sims. This number of NINs collected represents a significant increase when compared with the 47.8 million reported by the Technical Committee on January 18, 2021.