Nigeria

NIN registration: 29m SIM cards risk disconnection as deadline expires on January 19

Tuesday, January 19, 2021 at 11:07 AM by Kess Ewubare

- Many Nigerians are yet to comply with the federal government’s directive on NIN registration

- The fate of those who fail to meet the deadline for the registration remains uncertain

- Some Nigerians have complained that they have been unable to register despite making several attempts

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The federal government’s deadline requiring subscribers who already have National Identity Numbers (NIN) to link their data with their SIM cards expires today, January 19.

According to Daily Trust, the deadline comes amid reports that 29 million telecom users are yet to link their NIN to their SIMs.

The federal government had earlier warned that subscribers with NIN who fail to abide by the directive will be disconnected.

NIN registration: 29m SIM cards risk disconnection as deadline expires on January 19 — The FG has refused to relent on its stand on SIM registration with NIN. Photo: Dr Isa Ali Pantami (Facebook), Biometric update
Source: UGC

However, Uwa Suleiman, a spokesperson to the minister of communications and digital economy, did not respond to Daily Trust’s enquiry seeking to know what would be the fate of those who failed to do the linkage before the deadline.

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Uncertainty on NIN deadline as telecoms operators raise alarm on outdated NIMC facilities

The other deadline mandating subscribers without NIN to obtain their numbers and link them to their SIMs falls on February 9, 2021.

Meanwhile, more uncertainty continues to trail the ongoing NIN registration after a group, the African Centre for Justice and Human Rights (ACJHR), asked the federal government to stop the exercise.

ACJHR in a statement in Abuja said the registration being carried out by the Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC) exposes Nigerians to the risks of contracting COVID-19, The Sun reported.

The executive director of the forum, Nduka-Edede Chinwendu, advised the government to take into consideration the daily increase of COVID-19 cases being recorded in Nigeria.

In a related report, telecom operators said they are having challenges integrating the number of their subscribers with the NIMC backend.

Although Nigerians, in compliance, have been enrolling and forwarding numbers to their respective telecoms service, service providers said they have not been receiving messages from NIMC due to outdated backend integration, The Guardian reported.