The Nigerian Government has said telecommunications companies will resume registration, activation and replacement of SIM cards on April 19, months after the process was halted.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by Dr Femi Adeluyi, the Technical Assistant to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantanmi on Thursday, 15th April 2021.
The registration is to follow the new policy guidelines approved by the federal government which is the mandatory National Identity Number (NIN) for anyone to be issued a SIM.
The statement read in part, “The issuance of new SIMs and other suspended activities will resume on the same date, as long as verification is done and the guidelines are fully adhered to.
“The Honourable Minister has also directed NCC and NIMC to ensure that the provisions of the Policy are strictly followed by all operators and subscribers.
“The possession of a National Identity Number (NIN) will be a prerequisite for new SIM acquisition and activation, SIM replacement, new SIM activation for corporates and Internet-of-Things/Machine-to-Machine (IoT/M2M), amongst others.
“Corporate registration, institutions will be required to appoint a telecoms master (at the minimum of an executive management level) to provide the operational primary NIN representation. The Telecoms master will also be responsible for ensuring that the users provide their NINs to serve as a Secondary NIN.
“The revised policy will ensure that operators conform to the required standards for biometric capture.
“The Guidelines in the Policy have been painstakingly developed and while they are thorough, it should be noted that they have been developed that way in National interest since the SIM is essentially a national resource. Citizens and legal residents are encouraged to bear with the government as the process has been developed in the best interest of the country,” the statement said.
Dr Pantami thanked Nigerians for their patience and compliance with the Federal Government’s directive on the NIN-SIM registration exercise.
He also reiterated the government’s commitment to continue taking decisions aimed at easing the pains of the citizens with regard to issues related to NIN and SIM registration.
