Nigerian Government Directs MTN, Other Telecom Companies To Bar Calls From SIM Cards Not Linked With National Identity Number, NIN

This was made known by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, in a statement on Monday.

According to him, the move is part of the implementation of the NIN-SIM linkage Policy of the government.

The statement was jointly signed by the Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission, Ikechukwu Adinde; and Head, Corporate Communications, National Identity Management Commission, Kayode Adegoke.

Pantami commended Nigerians and legal residents for their support during the exercise to link the NIN to SIM.

It added that over 125 million SIMs have so far had their NINs submitted for immediate linkage, verification and authentication. Similarly, NIMC has issued over 78 million unique NINs to date.

The statement partly reads, “President Buhari graciously approved the many requests to extend deadlines for the NIN-SIM linkage. At this point, however, Government has determined that the NIN-SIM Policy implementation can proceed, as machinery has already been put in place to ensure compliance by citizens and legal residents. The implementation impacts on the government’s strategic planning, particularly in the areas of security and socio-economic projections.

“President Buhari has approved the implementation of the policy with effect from the 4th of April, 2022.
Consequently, the Federal Government has directed all Telcos to strictly enforce the Policy on all SIMs issued (existing and new) in Nigeria. Outgoing calls will subsequently be barred for telephone lines that have not complied with the NIN-SIM linkage Policy from the 4th of April, 2022.”

Some days ago, the Nigerian government again announced the extension of the deadline for the ongoing national identification number (NIN) and subscriber identity module (SIM) integration exercise by a few days. The exercise was meant to end on Thursday, March 31, 2022