The Nigeria government has ordered all telecommunication service providers to ask all subscribers to provide their National Identification Numbers (NIN). Subscribers who fail to do so within two weeks are to be blocked from using their SIM cards.
This was the resolution reached at a meeting between the minister of communication and digital economy and stakeholders in the communication industry on Monday.
The resolution was disclosed by the spokesperson of the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) in a statement on Tuesday.
The major telephone networks in Nigeria are MTN, Globacom, Airtel and 9mobile.
The meeting affirmed the earlier directive to totally suspend the registration of new SIM cards by all operators.
“Operators to require ALL their subscribers to provide valid National Identification Number (NIN) to update SIM registration records.
“The submission of NIN by subscribers to take place within two weeks (from today December 16, 2020 and end by 30 December, 2020).
“After the deadline, ALL SIMs without NINs are to be blocked from the networks.
“A Ministerial Task Force comprising the Minister and all the CEOs (among others) as members is to monitor compliance by all networks. Violations of this directive will be met by stiff sanctions, including the possibility of withdrawal of operating license.
If you have already done your NIN registration before, you can dial *346# to retrieve your NIN number.
I hope some of us that used our NIN temporary cards as means of identification while registering our SIMs will be exempted from this unwanted exercise during this Covid 19 pandemic. Many guys don’t even have NIN
This is the definition of Nigeria. In a lockdown situation, you give the entire nation 2 weeks to provide something some of us have never heard before, what is NIN again? Who has National ID in this uselessly flawed system we call governance? I only have my Int’l Passport and nothing else, I have a number of sims for all networks how do one get this done without breaching the social distancing rule? Forget us vibrant youths what about our grand parents in remote areas, how do they get this done in such a short whlile? When will those rulling us stop being so confused, how can an absolutely blind person lead those partially blind. Disgraceful. Thanks Prof for the info, which I fear will only lead to panic for anyone disconnected from their lines during this festive season stranded in rural areas. Talk about lack of direction and they lead others, joke of a nation!
Initial gra gra
i suggest all the networks provide an online platform to update NIN instead of going down to their offices.
Disconnect us and see how they will burn down your offices nationwide.