The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has asked Nigerians to obtain and submit their national identity number (NIN) to their telecom service provider.
This was disclosed by the commission on Wednesday in a revised statement following its announcement of the suspension of sales and reactivation of new SIM cards.
BizWatchNigeria had reported the announcement by the commission directing telcos to suspend sales and reactivation of new SIM cards because of an audit of the subscriber registration database.
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“All citizens are urged to immediately secure digital identification from the National Identity Management Commission and submit it to the network operators,” the statement read.
The NIN is a national identification programme introduced by the federal government and managed by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
The document forms part of the requirements by banks for identification and is a prerequisite by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) for international passport applicants.
A statement released by Ikechukwu Adinde, NCC director for public affairs, on Wednesday said the directive became necessary against the background of the “preponderance of pre-registered SIMs with the attendant security implications associated with the use of same to facilitate criminal activities”.
