Nigerians who have not registered their mobile phone numbers with National Identification Number NIN have up to 5 weeks to do so.
Users who don’t link their numbers with NIN before the deadline may lose their phone numbers.
The directive which was given by the Nigerian Communications Commission NCC has been a subject of debate with many citizens stressing that the time is not enough.
According to the National Identity Management Commission, only 41.5 million Nigerians have registered for identity cards as of May 2020.
The country has a population of over 200 million people with over 198 million active mobile lines.
The Federal Government had on Monday the 21st of December, announced an extension for Nigerians to connect their National Identification Number (NIN) to their telephone numbers.
The extension was contained in a statement issued by the Director-General, National Identity Management Commission, Aliyu Aziz, and his Nigerian Communications Commission counterpart, Umar Danbatta.
Subscribers with NIN were given three weeks’ extension to get their NIN linked with their mobile lines; while those without NIN have six weeks to get their NIN and link it to their lines.
“Three (3) weeks extension for subscribers with NIN from 30th December, 2020 to 19th January, 2021; and “Six (6) weeks extension for subscribers without NIN from 30th December, 2020 to 9th February, 2021”, the statement reads.
