The Federal Government of Nigeria has given a directive to telecommunications firms to bar all outgoing calls of all Subscriber Identification Module cards yet to be linked with the National Identification Number effective today, April 4, 2022.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, stated this in a briefing on Monday, saying that it was part of the implementation of the NIN-SIM linkage Policy of the government.
The Federal Government had mandated telecommunications subscribers to link their SIMs with their NINs in December 2020, as part of the regime’s “security and social policies” but many Nigerians have faulted the effectiveness of the NIN-SIM linkage as kidnappers of Abuja-Kaduna train passengers and others still phone victims’ families to demand ransom and go scot-free, untraced with their NINs.
Pantami’s statement titled, ‘NIN-SIM Linkage: Federal Government Commends Compliance and Directs Telcos to Bar Outgoing Calls on Unlinked Lines from 4th April, 2022’, indicate that more than 125 million SIM cards have had their NINs submitted for linkage, verification and authentication while the NIMC has issued over 78 million NINs till date.
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.