FG sets new deadline for NIN-SIM integration

 

Nigeria’s Federal Government on Tuesday extended by eight weeks the ongoing National Identification Number (NIN) and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) integration exercise.

It said the new deadline was now April 6, 2021.

Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission, Ikechukwu Adinde, in a WhatsApp chat to the media, said the extension was conveyed by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.

Pantami conveyed the message during the meeting of the Ministerial Taskforce on NIN-SIM registration which held on the 1st of February, 2021.

On December 15, 2020, the Federal Government declared that after December 30, 2020, all SIMs not registered with valid NINs on the network of telecommunications companies would be blocked.

READ: FG yields to pressure, extends SIM registration with NIN

It later extended the December 30, 2020 deadline, following widespread opposition against the earlier announcement and gave three weeks’ extension for subscribers with NIN from December 30, 2020 to January 19, 2021.

It also gave six weeks’ extension for subscribers without NIN from December 30, 2020 to February 9, 2021, but many organisations had called for further deadline extension or outright suspension of the NIN registration process.