The federal government may extend the deadline for the linkage of National Identification Number (NIN) to SIM cards, a source close to the matter has said.
The meeting to extend the deadline is ongoing, according to a government official in the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami is presently presiding over the ministerial task force meeting on the NIN-SIM linkage exercise.
TNG reports the meeting, holding virtually, is the 2nd high-level meeting of the ministerial task force on the NIN-SIM linkage exercise.
The high-level meeting is reviewing the progress report of the ongoing linkage exercise, following which, the deadline for linkage would be extended.
All members of the taskforce are present at the meeting. They include CEOs of NIMC, NCC, and NITDA, CEOs of all mobile network operators in Nigeria, Chairman of ALTON, CEOs of Spectranet, Smile, and deputy MD, Intercellular.
Recall that the FG had on December 15, 2020 declared that all SIM cards that were not registered with valid NIN on the network of telecommunications companies would be blocked after December 30, 2020.
However, following public outcry against the short notice, the FG later extended the deadline, giving 3 weeks’ extension for subscribers with NIN from December 30, 2020, to January 19, 2021, and a 6-week extension for subscribers without NIN from December 30, 2020, to February 9, 2021.
Meanwhile, the FG did not carry out its threat of blocking SIM cards of subscribers with NIN on January 19. The FG unified the deadline, postponing the deadline to February 9 altogether.
Details of the extension of the deadline would be communicated later, the source told TNG.