The Federal Government on Monday extended the deadline to register for the National Identification Number (NIN) by three weeks.
Ripples Nigeria had reported that the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) had asked telecommunications subscribers to provide their NIN numbers to their operators to prevent their lines from being blocked within two weeks.
The extension was contained in a statement on Monday by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
The statement was jointly signed by the Executive Vice-Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Umar Danbatta, and Director-General, National Identity Management Commission, Aliyu Aziz.
It read: “The National Task Force on National Identification Number and SIM Registration met today, 21st December, 2020.
“The meeting was chaired by the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami with major stakeholders in the sector including Chairman – NCC, EVC-NCC, DG-NITDA, DG-NIMC, ECTS/ECSM-NCC, Chairman ALTON, CEOs of MTN, Airtel, Ntel, Glo, Smile, and 9Moble in attendance.
“Based on the endorsement of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the following resolutions were made:
“Three (3) weeks extension for subscribers with NIN from 30th December, 2020 to 19th January, 2021; and
“Six (6) weeks extension for subscribers without NIN from 30th December, 2020 to 9th February, 2021.
“NIMC has provided strategies to enable citizens attend the registration in full compliance with Covid-19 protocols – particularly the use of facemasks which remains mandatory and maintenance of social distancing.”
The extension is coming on the heels of reports of large crowd of Nigerians trooping to registration centres in order to beat the earlier December 30, 2020 deadline.
