TheCable

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) says 56.18 million national identification numbers have been collected by telecommunication companies.

This figure is higher than the 47.8 million NIN collected as of January 18.

In a statement announcing the extension of the deadline for NIN-SIM linkage, the NIMC said each NIN is usually tied to an average of three to four SIM cards meaning that a large portion of telco subscribers have submitted their NIN.

“Over 1,060 registration centres for NIN have been activated and made operational by NIMC across the country while mobile network operators have opened hundreds of centres and are rapidly deploying resources to open thousands of other NIN enrolment centres across states of the country,” the statement read.

Isa Ali Pantami, the minister of communications and digital economy had first announced on February 4, 2020, that the NIN be incorporated in the SIM registration process.

The federal government had earlier given telco subscribers a two-week timeline in December 2020  to update their SIM registration with a valid NIN.

However, the federal government extended the deadline to January 19, 2021, for subscribers with NIN to link it their SIM cards and February 9, 2021, for those without NIN.

The deadline has now been extended by eight weeks to April 6.