The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Thursday disclosed that the linkage of Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) with the National Identification Numbers (NIMs) of all telecom subscribers in the country had been completed.
The Executive Vice-chairman (EVC)/Chief Executive Officer of the commission, Dr. Aminu Maida, who gave this hint at the Annual Corporate Governance conference in Lagos, said the Commission recently concluded the implementation of the federal government’s 2020 policy of linking every phone number to a NIN.
Maida, who spoke against the backdrop of the significance of the NIN-SIM linkage initiative and the challenges faced by Nigerians during the process to comply with the policy directive, noted that “though, it was a bit painful for Nigerians, I think we also need to appreciate what that does for us. Today, there is no phone number that we cannot associate with a verified NIN. Not just a number, but a number that has been verified”.
The EVC said that even though some people may find the exercise as cumbersome and doubt the authenticity of the linked identities, the initiative remained an important starting point for accountability in the government’s efforts to build a national identity database for Nigerians.
He assured: “If a phone number is involved in fraud or any crime, I can now authoritatively say, based on the NIN linked to it, this is the person who is using that phone number”.
