The deadline for the linkage of National Identification Number (NIN) to Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) is today, March 31, 2022, even as the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) issued 77.1 million NINs.
Most Nigerians that are yet to enrol for NIN, since December 2020, still await the directive from the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. It has been eight times now that the deadline for verification and linking of NIN to SIM has been shifted.
According to findings conducted by a Geeky Nigeria correspondent, some subscribers that are yet to register and link their NIN with their SIM card, are beginning to get anxious over the threat to disconnect their SIM from Network by the federal government.
Conversely, even though NIMC had assured of a continuous process of NIN registration, most subscribers who had already registered and obtained their NINs, are still afraid that they may be cut off from communication, if the federal government make do its threat to deactivate all SIM cards that are not linked to their NINs after today.
According to statistics from Geographical registrations, Lagos has the most registrants with 8.89 million, while Kano has 6.3 million. Kaduna has 4.5 million, Ogun (3.14 million), Oyo (3.13 million), FCT (2.88 million), Rivers (2.35 million), Katsina (2.34 million), Delta (2.12 million) and Borno (1.99 million).
Although, North West leads has the most regional distribution with 19.5 million, closely followed by South West with 19.3 million, and North Central with 13 million; North East has 9.5 million while South-South and South East residents were 8.9 million and 6.58 million respectively.
The Head of Corporate Communications at National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Mr. Kayode Adegoke, explained that NIMC registration centres would still be open to telecoms subscribers who could not register before today’s deadline.
“NIN registration is continuous and registration will continue, even after the linkage deadline,” he said.
