ICT
New SIM Registration to Resume April 19 As FG Lifts Embargo
The Federal Government on Thursday, 15th April, 2021 directed telecommunication providers to commence new SIM cards registration from Monday, April 19 with the provision of National Identification Number (NIN). adsbygoogle || []).push({});
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami, said thursday in Abuja that the approval was in line with the Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration.
In a statement signed by his Technical Assistant, Information Technology, Dr Femi Adeluyi, the minister said Monday April 19, 2021 was adopted for the implementation of the policy.
Adeluyi said other suspended activities would also resume on the same date, as long as verification was done and guidelines fully adhered to.
The minister also directed NCC and NIMC to ensure that the provisions of the Policy were strictly followed by all operators and subscribers.
The Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003, Section 23(a), specifies the role of the Minister to include the formulation, determination, and monitoring of the general policy for the communications sector.
“The Minister had coordinated and led the development of the Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration in collaboration with all other stakeholders.
“An earlier Policy was approved on the 4th of February 2020, while the Revised Policy was developed in early March 2021.
“The final amendments to the revised Policy based on the directives of Mr President to make the use of NIN mandatory for all SIM registration were completed yesterday, 14th of April, 2021.
“Prior to that, the key aspects of the draft Policy were presented to the stakeholders at the 4th Review Meeting of the Ministerial Task Force (MTF) on the NIN-SIM registration which held on Friday, 26th of February, 2021,” he said.
The Policy includes Guidelines on New SIM Acquisition and Activation, SIM Replacement, New SIM Activation for Corporates and Internet-of-Things/Machineto-Machine (IoT/M2M), amongst others.
The possession of a National Identity number will be a prerequisite for each of these categories. For the Corporate registration, he said institutions will be required to appoint a Telecoms Master (at the minimum of an Executive Management level) to provide the operational Primary NIN representation.
“The Telecoms Master will also be responsible for ensuring that the users provide their NINs to serve as a Secondary NIN. “For IoT/M2M activations, SIM security protocols would be implemented on the SIM profile to ensure that SIMs can only be used for point-to-point data services specific to the URL they are working with.
On NIN registration, Adeluyi stated that significant progress has been made in the process across the country, noting that the Federal Government was committed to supporting all Nigerians and legal residents to obtain a NIN.
“The biometric verification process has been slower than anticipated, owing largely to the non-adherence of many previous SIM biometric capture processes to the NIMC standards.
“The Revised Policy will ensure that operators conform to the required standards for biometric capture. The Guidelines in the Policy have been painstakingly developed and while they are thorough, it should be noted that they have been developed that way in National interest since the SIM is essentially a national resource,” he explained.
