The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa has stated the major benefit of the NIN-SIM linkage to the Federal Government.
Disclosing this in a statement released on the official website of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Bawa stated that the NIN-SIM linkage would support the Federal Government in checkmating the activities of fraudsters and cyber-criminals.
The EFCC boss made this statement in a Ministerial Task Force meeting which took place on Thursday, 1st of April, 2021, where the approval for the extension of the NIN-SIM linkage was moved to the 6th of May, 2021.
According to the statement, the request for the extension was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari and endorsed by him.
In the meeting, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami noted that based on the updates of the NIN-registration process, over 51 million people have been assigned NINs.
He also stated that: “There are many people, who have enrolled and are in the process of being assigned NINs. With each individual having an average of 3 to 4 SIMs, the total number of SIMs tied to NINs would be close to the total number of registered SIMs in the country.
“The current number of monthly enrolments has increased significantly to about 2.6 million registrations.
“There has also been a remarkable increase in the number of enrolment centres across the country with about 3,800 centres available for enrolments. There are also many more new centres in the pipeline.”
Pantami noted the importance of obtaining feedback from all stakeholders in order to ensure that the NIN-SIM linkage process is one that cannot easily be compromised.
The minister further thanked Nigerians for their patience and compliance with the Federal Government’s directive on the NIN-SIM registration exercise.
He reiterated the government’s commitment to continually take decisions aimed at easing the pains of the citizens with regard to issues related to NIN and SIM registration.
The meeting was attended by key stakeholders, including the EVC/CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), DG/CEO of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), DG/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Representative of the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON). Others included the NCC Executive Commissioners Technical Services and Stakeholder Management, MD/CEOs of MTN, Airtel, EMTS (9Mobile), NTEL, Spectranet and SMILE, as well as the COO of Glo.
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