Federal Government extends NIN -SIM linkage by a month

The Federal Government has again extended the deadline for the registration, verification and linkage of the National Identity Number (NIN) to SIM cards by one month.

This extension was contained 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, in Abuja on Friday.

The last extension was billed to elapse on April 6, 2021 but with the new directive, May 6, 2021 becomes the new deadline for the NIN-SIM linkage.

The statement read in part, “The meeting took place on Thursday, April 1, 2021, and approval was given to extend the period of the NIN-SIM linkage to the 6th of May, 2021.

“The request for the extension was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari and he endorsed it.”

The statement also disclosed that over 51 million people have been assigned NINs.

This is the fourth time that the NIN-SIM linkage has been extended.

The Federal Government in December extended the registration by three weeks for subscribers after the first deadline of December 30, 2020.

It also gave six weeks’ extension for subscribers without NIN from December 30, 2020, to February 9, 2021.

And on February 2, 2021, the government responded to calls for extension and shifted it to April 6, 2021.