The Federal Government has extended the deadline for the linkage of the National Identification Number (NIN) and subscriber identity module (SIM) for the 5th time. The latest deadline falls on June 30. The extension is coming two days before the May 6 expiration date last declared by the government.
January 19 was the first deadline, but it was moved to February 9, April 6, May 6, and now June 30.
The June 30 deadline was announced via a statement jointly signed by Ikechukwu Adinde, director of public affairs at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and Kayode Adegoke, head of corporate communications at the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
The extension was approved after a virtual meeting between Minister of Communication, Adeolu Akande, NCC chairman; Umar Garba Dambatta, executive vice president of NCC, and Aliyu Azeez, director-general of NIMC.
“The postponement of the deadline was also based on the request by stakeholders for an extension till 30th of June in order to make it easier for all citizens and legal residents to register,” the statement said.
“Significant progress has been made in the NIN-SIM verification process. For example, almost 54 million people have obtained their NIN and this can translate to up to 190 million mobile numbers since empirical evidence suggests that each unique NIN maps to 3 to 4 phone lines.”
