The Federal Government has approved the establishment of dedicated Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) swap centres in each of the 774 local government areas in the country.
This was announced in a statement jointly signed by the Director of Public Affairs of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Ikechukwu Adinde, and Head of Corporate Communications at the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Kayode Adegoke, on Wednesday.
The decision was reached at the fourth ministerial task force meeting on the NIN-SIM registration held in February.
According to the statement, the NIN enrolment agent licenses granted to mobile network operators was also extended from one to five years in consideration of their satisfactory performance as well as to simplify the enrolment process for Nigerians and legal residents.
The minister tasked a multi-sectoral ad-hoc committee drawn from NCC, National Identity Management Commission, Nigeria Immigration Service, and the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria to immediately complete the review of the processes for new SIM activations for legal residents staying in Nigeria for less than 24 months.
“The technical committee was mandated to complete the development of a new SIM issuance strategy that cannot be compromised. This will ensure that there is no repeat of the past process that was compromised through pre-registration by some agents.
“A multi-sectoral adhoc committee was tasked to immediately complete the review of the processes for new SIM activations for legal residents staying in Nigeria for less than 24 months. The membership of the committee was drawn from NCC, NIMC, Nigeria Immigration Service and the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON),” the statement read in part.
However, no update was provided about the April 6 deadline for the linkage of national identity numbers (NIN) to SIM cards.
