The number of Nigerians currently on the NIN Database has exceeded 51 Million people, with monthly enrolments increasing significantly to about 2.6 million registrations.
Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, disclosed this after the meeting of Ministerial Task Force on the NIN-SIM data linkage.
The meeting took place on Thursday, April 1, 2021 and an approval was given to extend the period of the NIN-SIM linkage to the 6th of May, 2021. The request for the extension was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari and he endorsed it.
Pantami, giving an update said “Based on the updates of the NIN-registration process, over 51 million people have been assigned NINs”.
He noted that many people who have enrolled and are in the process of being assigned NINs would be close to the total number of registered SIMs in the country, adding that each of these individual have an average of 3 to 4 SIMs.
According to him, “The current number of monthly enrollments has increased significantly to about 2.6 million registrations.
“There has also been a remarkable increase in the number of enrolment centres across the country with about 3,800 centres available for enrollments . There are also many more new centres in the pipeline.
Abdulrasheed Bawa, Chairman of the EFCC addressing the meeting, stated that the NIN-SIM linkage would support the Federal Government in checkmating the activities of fraudsters and cybercriminals.
The Honourable Minister also noted the importance of obtaining feedback from all stakeholders in order to ensure that the NIN-SIM linkage process is one that cannot easily be compromised.
He thanked Nigerians for their patience and compliance with the Federal Government’s directive on the NIN-SIM registration exercise.
He reiterated government’s commitment to continually taking decisions aimed at easing the pains of the citizens with regard to issues related to NIN and SIM registration.
The meeting was attended by key stakeholders, including the EVC/CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), DG/CEO of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), DG/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Representative of the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON).
Others included the NCC Executive Commissioners Technical Services and Stakeholder Management, MD/CEOs of MTN, Airtel, EMTS (9Mobile), NTEL, Spectranet and SMILE, as well as the COO of Glo.
