The House of Representatives has asked the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to extend the December 31 deadline given to sim card owners to submit their National Identification Numbers (NIN) to their various network providers to prevent blocking.
The federal government, through the Ministry of Communications, had on Tuesday, directed all telecommunications operators in Nigeria to block all Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) without the National Identification Number (NIN) after December 31.
The network operators were also asked to direct all their subscribers to provide valid NIN to update their records and suspend SIM registration.
But the House Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu in a motion moved during plenary on Wednesday, noted that two weeks was too short for about 200 million Nigerians to conclude the process.
The lawmakers, had acknowledged the importance of the directive, which was for security reasons, but urged the NCC to extend the process by 10 weeks, given the difficulty experienced by Nigerians in attaining the NIN.
At a stakeholders’ meeting on Monday, convened by the Communications Minister, Dr. Isa Pantami, participants had resolved that the submission of NIN by subscribers would take place between December 16 and 30, 2020.
It was also resolved that at the expiration of the deadline, all SIMs without NINs should be blocked from the networks.
A Ministerial Task Force comprising the minister and all the CEOs, among others, as members would monitor compliance by all networks.
Government also warned that any network operator who violates the directive would be sanctioned.