The Federal Government has announced the extension of the NIN registration deadline by 8 weeks.
According to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, the NIN-SIM enrolment will now close on April 6, 2021, as against 9th February when it was supposed to end.
The decision to extend the registration deadline was made by the Ministerial Taskforce on NIN-SIM registration which held on February 1, 2021.
In a statement signed by the Director of Public Affairs, NCC, Dr. Ike Adinde and Head of Corporate Communications, NIMC, Kayode Adegoke, Pantami stated that the extension is to give Nigerians and legal residents more time to integrate their NIN with the SIM.
The meeting was chaired by the Honourable Minister and attended by key stakeholders, including the EVC/CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), DG/CEO of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), DG/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON). Others include the MD/CEOs of MTN, Airtel, 9Mobile, Ntel, Spectranet, and SMILE, as well as the COO of Globacom.
So far, a total of 56.18 million NINs have been collected by the mobile network operators. This number of NINs represents a significant increase when compared with the 47.8 million reported by the Technical Committee on January 18, 2021.
Also, over 1060 registration centres for NIN have been activated and made operational by NIMC across the country, while Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have opened hundreds of centres and are rapidly deploying resources to open thousands of other NIN enrolment centres across states of the country.
Pantami reiterated the need for Nigerians and legal residents who are yet to register for the NIN to be diligent and take advantage of the extension to enroll for their NIN and link with their SIMs. It would be recalled that the 4th of February, 2020 was the initial date of the commencement of the National NIN-SIM Registration Policy.
