By AAT
The Federal government has extended the period for phone users to link their SIM numbers in the ongoing National Identification Number(NIN) anfd subscriber identity module(SIM) integration exercise by another 8 weeks.
The new deadline will now be April 6, the statement explained.
The eight-week extension was announced by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, at the ministerial taskforce meeting on NIN-SIM registration on Tuesday.
Pantami said the extension is to give Nigerians and legal residents more time to integrate their NIN with the SIM.
The meeting was chaired by the Mr Pantami and attended by the CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission, 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 participants include the MD/CEOs of MTN, Airtel, 9Mobile, Ntel, Spectranet and SMILE, as well as the COO of Globacom.
A total of 56.18 million NINs have been collected by the mobile network operators, a statement issued by spokespersons of NCC and NIMC Ikechukwu Adinde and Kayode Adegoke respectively.
This number of NINs collected represents a significant increase when compared to the 47.8 million reported by the technical committee on January 18.
Also, 1060 registration centres for NIN have been activated and made operational by NIMC across the country, while mobile network operators have opened hundreds of centres and are rapidly deploying resources to open thousands of other NIN enrolment centres across states of the country, the statement said.