Issuance of new sim cards to resume April 19th — FG

The Federal Government on Thursday April 15 said the issuance of new SIM cards will resume on April 19. 

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In a statement released on behalf of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy by Femi Ademiluyi, a technical aide to Minister Isa Pantami, it was stated that new SIM cards will be issued “as long as verification is done and the guidelines are fully adhered to.”

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It was also added that posssession of the National Identity number will be a prerequisite on new SIM Acquisition and Activation, SIM Replacement, New SIM Activation for Corporates and Internet-of-Things/Machine-to-Machine (IoT/M2M), amongst others. 

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The statement read "FG Approves the Activation of New SIM Registration with Mandatory NIN in line with the Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration

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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.

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In line with this, on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, FNCS, FBCS, FIIM coordinated and led the development of a Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration in collaboration with all other stakeholders.

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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."