The Nigerian government has ordered all mobile network operators in the country to update their customers’ registrations with the National Identity Number (NIN), with a directive that phone numbers not updated by end of this year would be blocked by January 2021.
This comes barely a week after the government banned the registration of new SIM Cards.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, announced this on Tuesday in Abuja, at an emergency meeting of key stakeholders in the communications industry.
Those who attended the meeting included chief executive officers and management of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), as well as the CEOs and management staff of all service providers in the industry.
Those in attendance agreed to implement an earlier directive to totally suspend registration of new SIMs 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.
Also, a a ministerial task force comprising the minister and all the CEOs (among others) as members is to monitor compliance by all network, while violations of this directive will be met by stiff sanctions, including the possibility of withdrawal of operating license.
Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, director of public affairs at the NCC, in a statement urged the general public to ensure that their NINs are captured in their SIM registration data.
