The Nigerian Government has extended the deadline for the registration, verification and linkage of the National Identity Number (NIN) to Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) cards by one month.
The deadline had been pegged for April 6, 2021, but unregistered citizens now have until May 6 to get registered, failure to do so may result the SIM card being blocked.
These developments were made known on Friday in a joint statement signed by both the Director of Public Affairs at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde and Head of Corporate Communications, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Kayode Adegoke.
Both asserted that there has been an exceptional increase in the number of enrolment centres across the country with about 3,800 centres available for regijstration.
The request for an extension had been presented to President Muhammadu Buhari who endorsed it.
Based on the updates of the NIN registration process, although over 51 million people have been assigned NINs, there are still thousands of people who have enrolled and are yet to be assigned their NINs.
The National Identification Number (NIN) is now required for major activities in the country including getting an international passport, jamb registration and a driving license.