The issuance of new Subscribers’ Identification Module (SIM) cards, SIM registration and replacement will resume on Monday, April 19, 2021, the Minister of Communications and Digital economy, Dr Isa Pantami, has said.
He said a revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration for individuals, corporate organisations and and Internet-of-Things/Machine-to-Machine (IoT/M2M) will become operational on the same day.
The minister made this known in a statement issued by the Technical Assistant (Information Technology) to Pantami, Dr Femi Adeluyi, on Wednesday.
He said individuals and businesses were mandated to comply the guidelines and verification requirments to SIM activation, registration and renewal.
Pantami charged the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to ensure that the provisions of the policy were strictly followed by all operators and subscribers.
The statement read in part, “On behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, coordinated and led the development of a Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration in collaboration with all other stakeholders.
“An earlier policy was approved on the 4th of February 2020, while the revised policy was developed in early March 2021. The final amendments to the revised Policy based on the directives of Mr President to make the use of NIN mandatory for all SIM registration were completed yesterday, 14th of April, 2021.
READ ALSO: SIM Retrieval Suspension Threatens Telecom Industry, Subscribers Shrink By 11.84 million
“The Policy includes Guidelines on New SIM Acquisition and Activation, SIM Replacement, New SIM Activation for Corporates and Internet-of-Things/Machine-to-Machine (IoT/M2M), amongst others.”
According to him, the possession of a NIN will be a prerequisite for both corporate registration and IoT/M2M.
For the corporate registration, he said institutions would be required to appoint a Telecoms Master to provide the operational primary NIN representation.
He stated that the Telecoms Master would also be responsible to ensuring that the users provided their NINs to serve as a secondary NIN.
For IoT/M2M activations, Pantami said, “SIM security protocols would be implemented on the SIM profile to ensure that SIMs can only be used for point to point data services specific to the URL they are working with. All other services will be barred.
“In the event that a data only service is particular to individual use (eg home car tracking, WiFi, MiFi services, etc), the standard NIN registration process will be followed. A Telecoms Master will also be required for Corporates requiring IoT/M2M activations. The full details of the requirements for each class of service will be made available in due course.”
He reiterated government’s commitment to continually taking decisions aimed at easing the pains of the citizens with regard to issues related to NIN and SIM registration.
