The Federal Government has approved the extension of the deadline for the National Identity Number (NIN) Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) data verification to July 26, 2021. Director of Public Affairs at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, and the Head of Corporate Communications at the Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Kayode Adegoke, announced this yesterday in Abuja in a joint statement, titled: ‘Fed Govt approves July 26 as NIN-SIM verification deadline as enrolment systems increase to 5,410’.

The statement said the decision to further extend the deadline was based on a request by the stakeholders. “The Federal Government has approved the extension of the deadline for NIN-SIM data verification to July 26, 2021. The decision to extend the deadline was made after a request by stakeholders on the need to consolidate the enrolment and NIN-SIM verification process, following the rapid increase in the number of enrolment systems across the country.

“As at June 28, 2021, a total of 5,410 enrolment systems are now available across the country and this would significantly ease the NIN enrolment process and subsequent linkage of NIN to SIM.   It is worthy of note that there were only about 800 such enrolment systems as at December 2020.

“The Federal Government has approved the extension as part of its efforts to make it easier for its citizens and residents to obtain the NIN and it is important to take advantage of the extension. There are now 57.3 million unique NIN enrolments with average of three to four SIMs per NIN. With the great number of enrolment centres across the country, every citizen and legal resident should be able to obtain their NINs,” the statement said. Communications and Digital Economy Minister Isa Pantami expressed appreciation to Nigerians for their patience and compliance with the Federal Government’s directive on the NIN-SIM registration.

Also, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Dambatta, and the Director General/CEO of NIMC, Aliyu Azeez, advised Nigerians and legal residents to take advantage of the extension to complete their enrolment and verification. It was earlier extended to June 30 by the Federal Government.

Source: The Nation