Only 7m of South East’s 22m population with NINs

NIMC issues fresh 2.89m in June
South East currently ranks lowest among the regions with the number of issued National Identification Number (NIN) by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
  
Specifically, data obtained by The Guardian from the NIMC showed that between May, when the issued number was 82.7 million and July 7, some 2.89 million new identity numbers were issued, pushing the total number to 85.5 million.
  
Regional distribution of the data as of the period under review showed that North West with 22.4 million NINs (26 per cent) ranks first; South West is second with 21.2 million NINs (25 per cent); North Central is third with 14.2 million identity numbers (17 per cent); North East with 10.6 million NINs (12 per cent) is fourth; South South is fifth with 9.8 million (12 per cent) and South East ranks lowest with seven million identification numbers, which represent eight per cent of the entire figure.
  

Oyo is fifth with 3.4 million NIN (1.8 million men and 1.6 million women); Abuja ranked sixth with three million (1.7 million men and 1.3 million women). This is followed by Katsina with 2.8 million issued NIN (1.7 million men and 1.1 million women); Rivers has 2.6 million NIN (1.4 million men and 1.1 million women); Delta has 2.3 million NINs (1.2 million men and one million women) and Niger ranked 10th with 2.3 million NINs (1.3 million men and 862,106 women).
  
Bottom 10 states as of July 7 are Imo, 1.44 million NINs; Zamfara 1.43 million; Enugu 1.41 million; Abia 1.39 million; Yobe 1.28 million; Taraba 1.25 million; Cross River 978,063; Ekiti 939, 302; Ebonyi 689, 555 and Bayelsa 552, 597.
    

The April directive affected about 75 million lines, and it later appeared that after making several efforts to re-link the lines, some subscribers experienced various forms of difficulties and had subsequently dropped some of the lines.
  
Recognising the fact that every single line blocked would amount to revenue loss, the telcos have device means targeted at wooing back the affected subscribers.
  
For instance, Globacom has introduced ‘Glo NIN Offer.’ Commenting on the launch of the adverts, the company noted that the “Glo NIN Offer is a one-time bonus offer applicable only to customers who were barred from making outgoing calls on the Glo network as directed by regulatory authorities due to NIN non-compliance.”
   
Once subscribers link their NIN to their SIMS, they will get a N20,000 bonus which can be used to call, browse and text on the network.
  
Also, Airtel has called on affected subscribers to re-link their lines and get N20,000 free airtime and data credit.