Despite the extension of the National Identification Number (NIN) to Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) linkage deadline by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) three times over the past two years, the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) has again appealed to the industry regulatory commission for a further shift of the deadline to September 30 this year.
The National President of NATCOMS, Deolu Ogunbanjo, who made the latest appeal to the commission at the weekend, attributed the association’s plea to the difficulties encountered with the NIMC portal over the past months, which hindered the smooth completion of the NIN-SIM linkage process.
The industry expert said: “We are experiencing significant issues with the NIMC portal. The portal’s inability to handle the high volume of uploads has led to delays and frustrations for both telecom operators and subscribers.
“We urge the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to extend the deadline to September 30, which would allow NIMC to enhance its portal capacity and improve the process for everyone involved”, Okubanjo added
According to him, the inability of the portal to handle the surge led to significant delays in completing the NIN-SIM linkage.
The NATCOMS’ chief explained that the challenges were noticed firsthand during the association teams’ visits to customer service centres of the mobile network operators (MNOs).
Describing the congestion and slow processes of the NIMC portal as frustrating, Ogunbanjo said the extension would allow NIMC to enhance the capacity of its portal and improve the process for all subscribers to comply with the regulatory directive by the NCC.
