The Federal Government has extended the ongoing National Identification Number (NIN) and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) integration exercise by eight weeks.
NCC’s director of public affairs Ikechukwu Adinde made this known on Tuesday via a statement, with a new deadline of April 6 for the exercise.
He said the extension was ordered by the minister of communications and digital economy Isa Pantami after the meeting of the ministerial task force on NIN-SIM registration.
Mr Pantami was quoted as saying the extension was to give Nigerians and legal residents more time to integrate their NIN with their SIMs.
“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,” the minister said.
“This number of NINs collected represents a significant increase when compared with the 47.8 million reported by the Technical Committee on Jan. 18.
“Furthermore, over 1,060 registration centres for NIN have been activated and made operational by NIMC across the country.
“While Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have opened hundreds of centres and are rapidly deploying resources to open thousands of other NIN enrolment centres across states of the country.
“This is in line with the policy of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to enhance security and make the process of obtaining NINs easier for Nigerians.”
The minister reiterated the need for Nigerians and legal residents who were yet to register for the NIN to be diligent and take advantage of the extension to enroll for their NIN and link with their SIMs.
