President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered telecommunication companies in the country to bar all outgoing calls from unlinked NIN-SIM lines from today Monday.
This was announced in a statement jointly issued by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
According to the statement, over 125 million lines have had their NINs submitted for linkage, verification, and authentication while NIMC on its part has issued over 78 million unique NINs to date.
The statement read, “On behalf of the Federal Government, the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has commended Nigerians and legal residents for their support during the exercise to link the National Identification Number (NIN) to the Subscriber Identification Module (SIM).
“As of date, over 125 million SIMs have had their NINs submitted for immediate linkage, verification and authentication. Similarly, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued over 78 million unique NINs to date.
Recall that President Buhari, had December 2020, gave the directive for the implementation and commencement of the exercise as part of the administration’s security and social policies, but the deadline for the NIN-SIM linkage has been extended on multiple occasions.
“The FG also took into consideration the passionate appeals by several bodies – Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), civil societies, professional bodies, and a host of others – for the extension of the deadlines in the past.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the implementation of the policy with effect from the 4th of April 2022. Consequently, the Federal Government has directed all telcos to strictly enforce the policy on all SIMs issued (existing and new) in Nigeria.
“Outgoing calls will subsequently be barred for telephone lines that have not complied with the NIN-SIM linkage policy from the 4th of April 2022. Subscribers of such lines are hereby advised to link their SIMs to their NINs before the telcos can lift the restriction on their lines.
The statement advised the affected individuals to register for their NINs at designated centres and thereafter link the NINs to their SIMs through the channels provided by NIMC and the telcos, including the NIMC mobile app.
