The minister of communications and digital economy Dr. Isa Pantami has set a December 31, 2020 deadline for all telecommunications subscribers to link their SIM cards with a National Identity Number (NIN) after which, the cards would be blocked.
The minister, who gave the fresh directive on Monday in Abuja when he convened an urgent meeting of key stakeholders in the communications industry, gave telecoms operators two weeks to link subscribers’ registered SIM cards on their networks to their NIN, which is currently being issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
The director of public affairs at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NIN) Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde said in a statement yesterday that the submission of NIN by subscribers must take place within two weeks from today December 16, 2020, and end by December 30, 2020.
He also stated that after the deadline, all SIMs without NINs are to be blocked from the networks.
A ministerial taskforce comprising the minister and all telecoms chief executives among others was constituted as members who will monitor compliance by all networks.
Telecommunications operators will also adopt several new measures for the registration of new SIM cards and the update of existing ones.
He explained that following the earlier directive on the suspension of new SIM registration by network operators, the minister convened an urgent meeting of key stakeholders in the Communications industry on Monday, December 14, 2020.
“The meeting had in attendance the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Management of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), as well as the CEOs and Management staff of all service providers in the industry.
“At the meeting, the need to consolidate the achievements of last year’s SIM registration audit and improve the performance and sanity of the sector was exhaustively discussed and all stakeholders agreed that urgent drastic measures have now become inevitable to improve the integrity and transparency of the SIM registration process,” he said.
He said decisions taken for immediate implementation by all network operators included affirmation of the earlier directive to totally suspend registration of new SIMs by all operators; operators to require all their subscribers to provide valid National Identification Number (NIN) to update SIM registration records and the submission of NIN by subscribers to take place within two weeks (from today December 16, 2020 and end by 30 December, 2020).
