As part of measures to reduce large crowds at the offices of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and also to address the hitches associated with the registration of citizens for the National Identification Number (NIN), NIMC has licensed tecommunications companies to register people who are yet to obtain their NIN.
Guardian reports that the Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission, Aliyu Aziz, who disclosed this during an interview, said some other private and public organisations had also been licensed by the commission to avoid overcrowding at the commission’s offices.
“We have licensed private and public sector organisations including telcos (telecommunications companies) so as to create more centres,” Aziz said.
Aziz’s diclosure came after Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, constituted a committee to address the demands of NIMC employees who had downed tools on January 7 in protest against the poor welfare and exposure to COVID-19. The strike was suspended days after.
Nigerian government in December 2020 announced that all SIMs that were not registered with valid NINs on the network of telecommunications companies would be blocked. It extended the deadline by six weeks for persons without NIN.
Despite the extension, the process has not been hitch-free at the centres as crowds continue to besiege registration centres nationwide.
