Nigeria to deny citizens without NIN access to driving license, passport

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said Nigerians without National Identity Number (NIN) would soon be denied the opportunity of acquiring driving licences and passports.

NCC spokesman Dr Ikechukwu Adinde said NCC’s Digital Signature radio programme that the October 31 deadline for linking NIN-SIM remains.

“Soon, people without NIN will be denied of necessary services that play vital roles in their lives including acquisition of driving licence, passport,” Adinde said.

On the benefits of the NIN-SIM integration, Adinde said the exercise will significantly enhance national security.

He noted that NIN is the primary identity for Nigerians and stressed that it is in line with Federal Government’s commitment to ensure that Nigeria deploys technology to improve service delivery. Adinde added that the NIN-SIM database will enhance citizens’ access to government services.”

Adinde advised Nigerians to make use of the extension of the NIN-SIM integration exercise to October 31, 2021, to enrol with NIMC, get their NINs and link them to their SIMs.

NCC’s Director of Consumer Affairs Bureau of NCC, Efosa Idehen, said phone numbers without unique identification could be used to commit crimes that remain untraceable.

Regional Director of NIMC in Lagos, Funmi Opesanwo, who also spoke on the programme, said that submission of NIN to a mobile network provider helped to provide a means of verifying an individual’s identity and safeguarding both identities and mobile line.

The Nigerian government since December 2020 had insisted that registering and linking NIN to phone numbers was mandatory and ordered telecom service providers to disconnect subscribers who fail to comply.

The Nigerian government has said telecom service providers who fail to block sim cards unregistered with NIN after a two-week extension in January 2021 risk withdrawal of their operational license.