By Toyosi Olajide
Following the NIN-SIM registration which deadline is today, March 31, 2022 telecoms subscribers who are yet to register and link their National Identification Number (NIN) with their Subscriber Identification Module (SIM card) are beginning to feel nervous over the initial threat by the federal government to deactivate all SIM cards.
The Head, Corporate Communications, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Mr. Kayode Adegoke, however, said in as much as the deadline for NIN-SIM registration and linkage is today, NIMC registration centres would still be open to telecoms subscribers who could not register before today’s deadline.
According to him, “NIN registration is continuous and registration will continue, even after the linkage deadline.”
Despite the assurance from NIMC on the continuous process of NIN registration, most subscribers who had already registered and obtained their NINs, are still afraid that they may be cut off from communication if probably the federal government makes do with its threat to deactivate all SIM cards that are not linked to their NINs after the March 31 deadline.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, last December has directed the telecoms industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to instruct telecoms operators to deactivate any SIM card that was not registered or properly registered and linked to subscribers’ NIN, after the initial December 31, 2020 deadline, given for NIN-SIM linkage.
However, as subscribers couldn’t meet up with the December 31, 2022 deadline, the federal government had to postpone the deadline and had since then postponed it almost 10 times to date.
At the last postponement, which was on December 31, 2021, Pantami conveyed the approval of the federal government to further extend the deadline for the National Identification Number (NIN)-Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) data verification, from December 31, 2021, to March 31, 2022.
In a statement jointly signed by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, Director, public affairs at NCC, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, and the Head of Corporate Communications at NIMC, Mr. Kayode Adegoke, Pantami said the extension became necessary, following the request by stakeholders, including citizens, legal residents, and Nigerians in the diaspora, to extend the date in order to give Nigerians ample time to register their NINs.
As the deadline ends today, subscribers have expressed their nervousness about being cut off from the telecommunications link if the federal government should do with its threats to deactivate any SIM that is yet to be registered and linked to NIN, after today.
The fears of the subscribers became high, since the federal government may not likely postpone the deadline again as it has been postponed 10 times since December 2022.
Investigations reveal that many subscribers were rushing to different centres to register their NIN and link the code to their SIM cards in order to beat March 31. As registration centres were taken to churches in Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Ibadan, just to ensure that subscribers duly register their NINs and link it to their SIM cards.
Some subscribers however took to the alternative forms of registration and linkage provided by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), to carry out the process of linking their NINs to their SIM cards. NIMC provided a mobile app that subscribers could download on their mobile phones and do self-linkage, without visiting any NIMC registration centres or their registered agents.