Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have collected 56.18 million National Identity Numbers (NIN) since the commencement of the ongoing Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) registration started, says the Federal Government.

The government added that over 1,060 registration centres for NIN have been activated by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) across the country to give Nigerians and legal residents more time to integrate their NIN with their SIMs.

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, who announced this in Abuja, explained that the NIN-SIM linkage deadline of February 9 had been extended to April 6.

According to a statement by the Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Ikechukwu Adinde and his NIMC counterpart, Mr. Kayode Adegoke, yesterday, the minister ordered the extension after a meeting of the Ministerial Taskforce on NIN-SIM registration.

Adinde and Adegoke quoted Pantami as saying: “It was reported that a total of 56.18 million NINs have been collected by the mobile network operators. Each NIN is usually tied to an average of three to four SIMs and this infers that the current figure accounts for a significant portion of the existing SIMs.

“This number of NINs collected represents a significant increase when compared with the 47.8 million reported by the Technical Committee on January 18.

“Furthermore, over 1,060 registration centres for NIN have been activated and made operational by NIMC across the country.

“Mobile Network Operators have opened hundreds of centres and are rapidly deploying resources to open thousands of other NIN enrolment centres across states of the country.

Source:- The Nation