The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Ali Isa Pantami, has said that 51 million Nigerians have registered for their national identification number (NIN).
He disclosed this at the sixth edition of the ministerial briefing organised by the Presidential Media Team, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.
He also warned that failure to obtain NIN can earn a Nigerian between seven and 14 years imprisonment as stipulated by the constitution. He also added that no one would soon be able to enjoy government services without having NIN.
Pantami said it was optional for someone to have a SIM card, but mandatory for them to have NIN. He stated that a lot of transactions in the country are not supposed to be done without NIN.
He said rather than population census that can be manipulated, NIN will determine the accurate number of Nigerians because of its uniqueness and tamper-proof quality.
The minister also announced that about 189 million Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) have been registered in the country.
Out of this, 150 million are complete registration while the remainder were improperly registered.
He said the improper registration has posed a challenge that government is currently dealing with.
The Federal Government last year directed telecom operators to to block SIM cards that are not linked to NIN by December of last year.
The deadline was to January 19, 2021, for subscribers with NIN to link it with their SIM, and February 9, 2021, for those without NIN.
The deadline was later extended to April 6.
