NATIONAL: NIMC issues fresh guidelines for NIN applicants

THE National Identity Management Commission, on Tuesday, issued fresh guidelines for applicants to obtain their National Identification Number.

This was made known by NIMC spokesman, Kayode Adegoke in a statement titled, ‘NIMC Adopts Booking System for NIN Enrolment.’

The statement partly read, “Mindful of the second wave of the COVID-19 which continues to severely affect public health and cause unprecedented disruptions, the Commission wishes to announce that it has adopted a couple of measures to contain the spread of the virus whilst ensuring its services to Nigerians are not entirely interrupted.

“Effective December 30, 2020, attending to applicants would be based on Booking System. For Bookings, applicants are to visit any of the NIMC Offices closest to them during stipulated business hours (9am – 1pm).

“Once admitted into the office, a Number-Issuing queue management system will be in place to ensure orderliness and strict adherence to Covid-19 Protocols.”

Applicants are expected to use face masks, observe social distancing and and wash their hands to be allowed to stay in the centres nationwide.

The Federal Government through the Nigerian Communications Commission had ordered telecommunications companies to block the Subscribers Identity Modules (SIM) of any subscriber who failed to link their phones to their National Identity Number.

NCC had earlier announced Dec.30 as the deadline for the registration for the National Identity Number but the House of Representatives intervened and asked the commission to extend the exercise by three weeks.

Following the announcement Nigerians without NIN have become desperate to obtain it, leading to a large crowd thronging the NIMC web portal, a development which reportedly caused  the crash of the portal last week.

Large crowds also resurfaced at NIMC centres nationwide on Tuesday after the Christmas break.

As of October, the total number of mobile network connections was 207.58 million, but currently, only 43 million Nigerians have NIN, thus 164 million telephone users are at the risk of being deactivated on January 19, 2021.