Emma Okonji
The Association of Licenced Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has assured Nigerians that it will work closely with the federal government to ensure the success of the integration of all registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards with the National Identification Number (NIN), as directed by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami.
In a statement jointly signed by the Chairman of ALTON, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo and its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Damian Udeh, ALTON said: “We will continue to work closely with the government to deliver on the task ahead of us and we are committed to making the process as seamless as possible for all our customers.
“The Chairman of ALTON, and the CEOs of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) who are members of ALTON are part of the ministerial task force accountable for implementing the directives as we work together to find a sustainable solution to this national assignment.”
According to the statement, all MNOs have now received an enrolment and verification license from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) via the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), legally enabling them to verify NIN’s provided by customers and to enrol citizens into the NIN database.
“All operators have established various systems to enable subscribers with existing NINs to add their NIN’s to their SIM registration profile.
“Options deployed for customer ease and convenience include USSD strings, apps and other self-service online portals, walk-in stores and customer care lines,” it added.
Adebayo, however, said it was important to note that when SIM registration details are verified against the NIN database, there would likely to be inconsistencies in some of the data captured such as spelling, order or number of names captured.
He said where such inconsistencies are found, the operators would notify subscribers and provide a quick and easy mechanism to update SIM registration data and ensure alignment.
He said having now been licenced by NIMC to provide registration and integration services, operators have commenced the process of backend integration with NIMC’s database and increasing the capacity of the respective databases thus enabling more rapid validation and verification.
“To provide operational steer, representatives of NCC, NIMC, ALTON and MNOs will also be meeting regularly to review progress, identify challenges, develop solutions and generally continue to enhance the process with a view to ensuring the safety, security and well-being of our customers while making significant progress towards our collective objective.
“We are pleased to see the recently announced extension of the deadline for registration and reiterate our commitment to ensuring the maximum level of compliance possible within the set timeframe,” Adebayo said.
