The Federal Government has approved the establishment of dedicated Subscriber Identification Modules (SIM) Swap centres by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) across the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Nigeria

This was disclosed in a joint statement signed by the Director, Public Affairs at Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, and the Head, Corporate Communications, Mr Kayode Adegoke.

The statement highlighted the resolutions reached at the Ministerial Task Force meeting on the NIN-SIM registration held on Friday and chaired by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami.

It was stated that the meeting approved the extension of the tenure of NIN enrolment agent licences for MNOs from one to five years in consideration of their satisfactory performance, subject to continuous monitoring.

The approval of the tenure of NIN enrolment agent licences is a deliberate effort of the FG to simplify the enrolment process for Nigerians and legal residents, the statement read.

Also, the technical committee was mandated to complete the development of a new SIM issuance strategy that could not be compromised to ensure there was no repeat of the past process that was compromised through pre-registration by some agents.

The Minister tasked a Multi-Sectoral Ad-hocCcommittee drawn from NCC, National Identity Management Commission, Nigeria Immigration Service, and the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria to immediately complete the review of the processes for new SIM activations for legal residents staying in Nigeria for less than 24 months.

He also requested that the NCC, working with the NIMC and MNOs, come up with a framework for the establishment of SIM swap/replacement centres in each of the 774 LGAs in the country, beginning with critical and feasible locations.

Stakeholders, who joined Pantami at the meeting included the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta; DG/CEO of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Aliyu Aziz; DG/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Abdullai; Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) ; the Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, among others.