Ogbongeblog Staff
Nigeria Telecommunications Companies have been licensed by the Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC) as NIN Agents in Nigeria to carry out NIN registration for Nigerians who do not have National Identity Numbers (NIN).
This simply means MTN, Globacom, Airtel, 9Mobile can conduct enrolment of all persons including legal residents into the National Identity Database (NIDB) on behalf of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC). This measure is to help reduce the large crowd at NIMC offices in Nigeria, which if not checked, can escalate the spread of the Covid-19 disease.
According to a report from Punch, this disclosure was made by the Director-General, NIMC, Aliyu Aziz, while responding to an inquiry with respect to measures taken by NIMC to address the complaints made by citizens and the crowds at the commission’s offices.
Kindly note that all SIMs that were not registered with valid NINs on the network of telecommunications companies would be blocked by February 9, 2021.
However, many Nigerians and organisations want further deadline extension or outright suspension of the NIN registration process due to the large crowds who had yet to have their NINs.
It can be recalled, that the chairman of Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) and member of the National Task Force on National Identification Number and SIM Registration, Gbenga Adebayo, stated last month, that more NIN enrolment outlets in Nigeria will enable Nigerians to comply with the Federal Government’s directive on SIM-NIN linking.
The ALTON chairman attributed the large crowds at the NIMC offices nationwide to the last-minute attitude of most Nigerians.
He said, “Before now, it has been apathy on the part of citizens to visit the enrolment centre of NIMC. I must say that until the time when NIN became a condition for Bank Verification Number, the number of uptake on NIN enrolment was quite low. And it all boils down to our attitude of low response or poor response as a people in general.
“NIMC has been on it for eight years but people have failed to visit those centres to enroll. Until there is a significant mandate that people need to do it before certain things happen, you don’t see people visiting those NIMC centres.”
