FG Sets December Deadline For NIN-SIM Registration

BoomRadioNG | October 31, 2021

The Federal Government has for the seventh time extended the deadline of the NIN-SIM registration.

The FG revealed that a significant part of the populace is yet to be registered into the National Identity Database (NIDB), which may be due to some challenges, and as such, necessitating an extension of the National Identification Number-Subscriber Identification Number (NIN-SIM) registration exercise.

And in a statement on Saturday the FG says that the exercise has again been extended till December 31, 2021.

According to the statement jointly signed by both the Director of Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ike Adinde and Head of Corporate Communications, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Kayode Adegoke, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, approved an extension of the exercise till the end of the year.

The statement disclosed that as of Saturday,30^th October the NIMC had so far issued 66 million unique NIN.

The statement reads: “The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) has conveyed the approval of the Federal Government to extend the deadline for the National Identity Number (NIN)-Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) data verification. Citizens and legal residents are urged to complete the process before the end of the year 2021.

“The decision to extend the deadline was made further to appeals by the Mobile Network Operators and other industry stakeholders, soliciting for a further extension to ensure better compliance with government’s directive and to avoid widening the digital divide.

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim PantamI

“The extension would also provide the enabling environment for the registration of Nigerians in remote areas, diaspora, schools, hospitals, worship centres, as well as foreigners, diplomatic missions, those in other areas that were hitherto unreachable, and increase enrolments in countries with a significant number of Nigerians.”

“However, a significant part of the populace is yet to be registered into the National Identity Database (NIDB), which may be due to some challenges which the Federal Government has looked into and has made efforts to alleviate, hence the need to extend the deadline,” NIMC stated.

According to NCC and NIMC, as of October 30, 2021, there were over 9,500 enrolment systems and over 8,000 NIN enrolment centres within and outside the country, which has significantly eased the NIN enrolment process and subsequent linkage of NIN to SIM.

They explained that the NIN-SIM verification process is supporting the government’s drive to develop Nigeria’s digital economy, strengthen our ability to protect our cyberspace and support the security agencies.