Thirty-four days after the Federal Government ordered telecom operators to bar Subscriber Identity Modules (SIM) not linked with owners’ National Identity Numbers (NINs) from originating calls, the total number of enrolment into the National Identity Data Base (NIDB) of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has reached over 82.73 million.
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After several shifts in the deadline for subscribers to link their SIMs with their NINs, the Federal Government, had on April 4, directed operators, through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to bar over 72 million SIMs affected from making calls.
According to data obtained from the Enrolment Dashboard May 2022 on NIMC website, as at May 26, 2022, enrolment stood at over 82.73 million ‘unique records’ with Lagos State accounting for the highest cumulative enrolment figure of over 9.48 million.
The breakdown of the data, according to gender, showed that while males recorded 46,564,578 enrolments, female enrolments stood at 36,173,574.
Regional figures indicated an almost equal distribution across the North and South.
The dashboard showed the top 10 NIN enrolment states as at May 26 to include Lagos with 9,487,186; Kano-6,929,287; Kaduna-4,851,793; Ogun-3,448,222; Oyo-3,388,963; FCT /Abuja-3,022,809 and Katsina-2,653,563. Others are Rivers with 2,523,712; Delta-2,250,218; and Niger 2,147,100.
The Commission also identified the top 10 bottom states for NIN enrolment to included Akwa Ibom 1,462,559; Imo 1,408,571; Enugu1,369,433; Zamfara-1,349,946; Yobe-1,216,125; and Taraba-1,207,416.
Others are Cross River-935,544; Ekiti-915,982; Ebonyi 670,403; and Bayelsa 541,516.
The process of linking NIN with SIM has been dogged by controversies, especially around accusations of extortion by agents contracted by NIMC to do the capturing. There is also the allegation of slow integration of subscriber information transmitted to NIMC server, thus delaying response time for linking SIMs with NINs.
Subscribers told our correspondent that four weeks after getting their NINs, they remained painfully unbarred. Those who sought explanation were told to cough out between N3,000 and N4,000 to expedite the process of validation. “I was told I may remain bared for the next four months if I don’t pay N4,000 to get the validation done. It’s so very painful that weeks after I have obtained the NIN after paying N2,500, I have not been able to originate calls from my number and this is affecting my business terribly,” the single parent called Iya Philip lamented.
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