About 129 million subscribers in Nigeria risk deactivation of their telephone lines ahead of the April 6 deadline for the linkage of their National Identity Number to the Subscriber Identification Module.
However, according the latest figure from the National Identity Management Commission, the number of SIM subscribers with NIN has increased to over 70 million in four weeks.
There are rumours that the April 6 deadline may be extended by two weeks.
Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Mr Gbenga Adebayo, stated, “The deadline for the registration, verification and linking of NIN to SIMs is still a bit far. It will be nice to see that all subscribers are linked on or before April 6, which is what the service providers are working towards. If this is achieved, then the issue of court-ordered extension may not be necessary any longer.”
According to reports, the prolonged NIN-SIM registration has impacted on the telecommunications industry, as telecommunication firms might have lost N25bn as a result of inactive SIM cards, which would increase to 9.6 million.
