The Federal Government on Thursday, April 15 has said that the issuance of new SIM cards will resume on April 19.
This was made this known in a statement released by Femi Adeluyi, the technical aide, minister of communications and digital economy, Isa Pantami, on Thursday. The government suspended the activity as it embarked on an audit of the subscriber registration database in December, 2020.
Pantami announced that the country is set to implement a revised national digital identity policy for SIM card registration, adding that the national identification number (NIN) is mandatory at all levels.
The statement said, “The policy includes guidelines on new SIM Acquisition and Activation, SIM Replacement, New SIM Activation for Corporates and Internet-of-Things/Machine-to-Machine (IoT/M2M), amongst others,” the statement read. “The possession of a National Identity number will be a prerequisite for each of these categories.
The minister also directed the Nigerian Comunications Commission (NCC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to ensure that the provisions of the policy are strictly followed by all operators and subscribers.
He added that, “The revised policy will ensure that operators conform to the required standards for biometric capture,” the statement added.
“The guidelines in the Policy have been painstakingly developed and while they are thorough, it should be noted that they have been developed that way in national interest since the SIM is essentially a national resource.
“The implementation of the Policy will commence on Monday, 19th of April 2021. The issuance of New SIMs and other suspended activities will resume on the same date, as long as verification is done and the guidelines are fully adhered to’’
NIN: FG lifts ban on new SIM registration.
