The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced on Thursday, April 15 that the issuance of new SIM cards will resume on April 19.
This was disclosed via a statement released on behalf of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy by Femi Ademiluyi, a technical aide to Minister Isa Pantami.
It was stated that new SIM cards will be issued “as long as verification is done and the guidelines are fully adhered to.”
It was emphasized in the statement that posssession of the National Identity Number (NIN) will be a prerequisite for 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 in part:
“FG Approves the Activation of New SIM Registration with Mandatory NIN in line with the Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration
“The Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003, Section 23(a), specifies the role of the Minister to include the formulation, determination and monitoring of the general policy for the communications sector.
“In line with this, on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, FNCS, FBCS, FIIM coordinated and led the development of a Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration in collaboration with all other stakeholders.
“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 possession of a National Identity number will be a prerequisite for each of these categories. For the Corporate registration, institutions will be required to appoint a Telecoms Master (at the minimum of an Executive Management level) to provide the operational Primary NIN representation. The Telecoms Master will also be responsible to ensuring that the users provide their NINs to serve as a Secondary NIN.
“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. The Honourable Minister has also directed NCC and NIMC to ensure that the provisions of the Policy are strictly followed by all operators and subscribers.”
