The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the extension of the deadline for the National Identification Number-Subscriber Identity Module data verification till July, 26, 2021.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by IKechukwu Adinde, Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission, which was released to the media in Abuja on Tuesday.
The statement, co-signed by Kayode Adegoke, Head of Corporate Communications, National Identity Management Commission, said the extention followed requests by stakeholders.
The FG also approved the increase in enrolment system to 5,410.
The statement said, “The decision to extend the deadline was made after a request by stakeholders on the need to consolidate the enrolment and NIN-SIM verification process following the rapid increase in the number of enrolment systems across the country.
“As at June 28, 2021, a total of 5,410 enrolment systems are now available across the country and this would significantly ease the NIN enrolment process and subsequent linkage of NIN to SIM.
”It is worthy to note that there were only about 800 of such enrolment systems as at December 2020.”
The FG had approved the extension as part of its effort to make it easier for citizens and residents to obtain the NIN and it is important to take advantage of the extension.
It said that there were a total of 57.3 million unique NIN enrolments, with an average of three to four SIMs per NIN.
“With the great number of enrolment centres across the country, every citizen and legal resident should be able to obtain their NINs,” the statement said.
It quoted the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali-Pantami, as saying that “the Federal Government, appreciates Nigerians for their patience and compliance with its directive on the NIN-SIM registration exercise.”
The statement further quoted the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Dambatta, and the Director-General of NIMC, Aliyu Azeez, urging citizens and legal residents to make sure they use the opportunity to complete the process of enrolment and verification.
Recall that the FG had on May 4, extended the NIN-SIM registration to June 30.
The Point reports that the initial deadline was January 19, which was shifted to April 6, then postponed to May 6 and June 30, before this last postponement.
