Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa
Pantami, has said the National Identification Number enrolment process will be
reviewed should the Federal Government impose a fresh lockdown amid the second
wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to him, the ministry will meet with the National
Identity Management Commission, and telecommunication operators once the
government announces a fresh lockdown and will review the NIN linkage to SIM
cards exercise.
Pantami spoke on Friday night while featuring on Channels
Television’s Politics Today programme.
He said, “If a second lockdown is enforced, then, the
ministerial taskforce including NIMC and all mobile network operators will sit
immediately and review. The task force meets usually within one week.
“So, when there is a second lockdown, we are citizens, we
must respect the Federal Government’s directives. When there is any
announcement, we will come back to the drawing board immediately and review the
whole thing. But now, it has not been announced and these (Covid-19) guidelines
are to be respected.”
The minister also said the ministry and NIMC are working on
transforming the NIN enrolment process and the onward linkage to SIM cards as
required by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
The Federal Government had said telcos subscribers with NIN
have January 19 as deadline to link their NIN with their SIM cards while
subscribers without NIN have until February 9 to do so.
As of October 2020, the total number of mobile network
connections was 207.58 million, but currently, only 43 million Nigerians have
NIN, thus 164 million telephone users are at the risk of being deactivated.
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