NIMC App can link 7 SIM cards to one NIN – Pantami
By Ogaga Ariemu
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, has urged Nigerians to download the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) App launched recently to link up to seven SIM cards to their National Identification Number (NIN).
Pantami said this during the weekend while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He said that the Ministry and NIMC are working on transforming the NIN enrolment process and the onward linkage to SIM cards as required by the Nigerian Communication Commission.
The Federal Government had said telcos subscribers with NIN have January 19 as the deadline to link their NIN with their SIM cards while subscribers without NIN have until February 9 to do so.
Pantami said, “First, whoever complains about the process, obviously, has not been following the events and transformations we have been infusing into the system. We developed an app which is available on Google PlayStore. As long as you have NIN, you only need to download the app and impute your mobile numbers without visiting any office in Nigeria.
“We should be able to impute up to seven mobile lines. I have already downloaded the app and used it.
“Digitalisation is an ongoing process. For instance, it was only after we have launched this app that Saudi Arabia’s government released theirs. The entire country was celebrating it that Saudi Arabia has digitalised it’s digital ID. This is something we have already launched.
“Secondly, with regards the process, there are things that anywhere in the world, you must do them physically. When it comes to NIMC, you can download the form virtually, complete the filling without visiting any office. You can even submit it virtually. But, things like biometrics require that you have to be physically there to submit them. We have dimensions for image capturing which must tally with standard stipulated in NIMC Acts under sections 14 and 15.
“And I was in NIMC office for supervision; I discovered that citizens are registered within three to five minutes”.
As of October 2020, the total number of mobile network connections was 207.58 million, but currently, only 43 million Nigerians have NIN, thus 164 million telephone users are at the risk of being deactivated.
