FG lifts ban on registration of new sim from Monday

The Federal Government has lifted the ban on new sim card registration, NewsSpecng learnt.

The effective date for implementation, the government said is on Monday, 19th April 2021.

It however placed NIN registration as mandatory for registering new sim cards.

The latest development was contained in revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration approved by President Muhammadu buhari.

In a statement signed by Dr Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant (Information Technology) to the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, reads in part, “The implementation of the Policy will commence on Monday, 19th of April 2021.  The issuance of New SIMs and other suspended activities will resume on the same date, as long as verification is done and the guidelines are fully adhered to. The Honourable Minister has also directed NCC and NIMC to ensure that the provisions of the Policy are strictly followed by all operators and subscribers.

“The Policy includes Guidelines on New SIM Acquisition and Activation, SIM Replacement, New SIM Activation for Corporates and Internet-of-Things/Machine-to-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, 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.  All other services will be barred.  In the event that a data only service is particular to individual use (eg home car tracking, WiFi, MiFi services, etc), the standard NIN registration process will be followed. A Telecoms Master will also be required for Corporates requiring IoT/M2M activations. The full details of the requirements for each class of service will be made available in due course.

The Minister of Communication, Dr Isa Pantami also thanked Nigerians for their patience and compliance with the Federal Government’s directive on the NIN-SIM registration exercise.

He reiterated government’s commitment to continually taking decisions aimed at easing the pains of the citizens with regard to issues related to NIN and SIM registration.

He said the Revised Policy was developed in early March 2021.

He also revealed that 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 on the 14th of April, 2021.