The Federal Government has extended the National Identification Number-Subscriber Identification Module linkage till February 9, 2021, to enable those who are yet to register for NIN or link up their SIM to do so.
The extension was made official on Wednesday by President Muhammadu Buhari, who directed Telecommunications not to block any SIM cards until the new deadline elapses.
Recall that on December 15, 2020, the Federal Government gave an ultimatum of December 30, 2020 as the deadline for all Sims with valid NINs to be registered on their telecom providers or risk being blocked.
The deadline was later extended by 3 weeks to January 19, following widespread opposition against the previous announcement.
Following the expiration of the January 19 deadline, Nigerians pleaded for more time, in which the Federal Government yielded to the pleas of the people by suspending the blockage of lines from the January 19 deadline to February 09, 2021.
In a statement by the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria ALTON, it confirmed that nobody will be blocked from any network till February 9, 2021.
The statement, signed by the Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, and Publicity Secretary, Damian Udeh, read in part, “ALTON can confirm to our members that we have received formal confirmation from the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC that President Muhammadu Buhari has graciously approved the extension of the deadline for subscribers with NIN to link it to their SIM registration data from 19th January to 9th February 2021.
“We thank the President for giving us more time to deliver on this all-important assignment of creating a credible national identity database for the country. We are also grateful to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Ali Pantami, for his commitment to enabling digital economy”.
ALTON urged telecom subscribers who have their NIN available to link it to their sim cards as soon as possible while those yet to register for NIN do so before the February deadline.
