The Federal Government has said that any telecoms subscriber who fails to submit his/her National Identity Number (NIN) to its network provider would be blocked from the network from December 31. This is just as the government reaffirmed its position on suspension of new SIM card registration across the country.
This was part of the decisions reached at a stakeholders meeting convened by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami. This is contained in a statement signed and issued by the Director, Public Affairs of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Ikechukwu Adinde.
At the meeting, the need to consolidate the achievements of last year’s SIM registration audit and improve the performance and sanity of the sector was discussed and all stakeholders agreed that urgent measures have now become inevitable to improve the integrity and transparency of the SIM registration process.
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The statement said the decisions taken for immediate implementation by all network operators include “affirmation of the earlier directive to totally suspend the 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. “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 sanctions, including the possibility of withdrawal of operating license.”
The meeting had in attendance the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) 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. The statement, however, charged the general public to ensure that their NINs are captured in their SIM registration data.
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