Anxiety as NIN/SIM linkage deadline ends today
The deadline set by the Federal Government for mobile subscribers to link their Identification numbers, NIN with their mobile phone’s Subscriber Identity Module, SIM cards, is today.
The deadline stipulates that those who failed to carry out the instruction, after today, will have their phones disconnected from the network pending when they would be able to do so.
This has created anxiety among subscribers who complained that the process of getting NIN alone was so strenuous, making the deadline difficult to achieve.
However, it was gathered that the deadline may be extended as relevant stakeholders met to review the deadline with a view to extending it. The extension would relieve subscribers of unnecessary tension.
A reliable source at the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, said that although he could not officially confirm the extension, it was likely that would happen.
Another source at the Association of licensed telecom operators in Nigeria, ALTON, umbrella body of all telecom operators in Nigeria, confirmed that government and relevant stakeholders were meeting over what would happen after the deadline today.
According to the source, “There’s definitely going to be an extension. Government itself should know that deactivating subscribers in the manner intended, after the deadline will be counter- productive. As we speak, a very serious meeting is going on between government and stakeholders to ensure the gains made so far, in telecom development over the years are not wiped out through this single directive’.
