NIMC extends timeline of blocking SIMs
With the hassles associated with the linking of SIMS to NIN, Stakeholders in the telecommunication industry have asked the Federal Government to further extend the timeline of blocking people’s Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards.
Subscribers seeking to link their National Identification Numbers (NINs) with their telephone numbers were disappointed with the action got from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), as they were told to come back on March 22.
The extension granted by the Federal Government for them to synchronize their lines will expire on February 9.
Desperate Nigerians, who besieged the Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos Office of the NIMC went back home disappointed after they were given a March 22 date for enrolment.
At the NIMC Office entrance, prospective enrollees were requested to register their names which were subsequently transferred to a notebook. They were asked to come on March 22 for data capturing.
Efforts to get the reaction of NIMC were futile as neither the two mobile phone lines of its spokesman, Kayode Adegoke went through. Some of the youths at the centre said they needed to get their NINs so they could write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to gain admission into higher institutions, while others said they needed it to renew their expired driver’s licence and international passports.
The implication of this is that the deadline date for the completion of linkage of existing NIN with all SIM cards as directed by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami is not going to be feasible.
On December 15, 2020, the NCC, at the instance of the Minister, issued a statement ordering the suspension of the registration of new SIM cards by all Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in the country while at the same time giving two weeks for persons with SIM cards to link them with the NIN or risk the numbers being suspended. The deadline was later extended by five weeks.
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