The Federal Government has ordered telecommunications operators including MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile to bar all outgoing calls of all Subscriber Identification Module cards not yet linked with the National Identification Number effective today, April 4, 2022.

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, announced this in a statement on Monday, saying that the move was part of the implementation of the NIN-SIM linkage Policy of the government.

The statement was jointly signed by the Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission, Ikechukwu Adinde; and Head, Corporate Communications, National Identity Management Commission, Kayode Adegoke.

The Federal Government had mandated telecommunications subscribers to link their SIMs with their NINs in December 2020, as part of the regime’s “security and social policies” but many Nigerians have faulted the effectiveness of the NIN-SIM linkage as kidnappers of Abuja-Kaduna train passengers and others still phone victims’ families to demand ransom and go scot-free, untraced with their NINs.https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.508.0_en.html#goog_1699886588

In the statement released on Monday, Pantami said as of date, over 125 million SIM cards have had their NINs submitted for linkage, verification and authentication while the NIMC has issued over 78 million NINs till date.

The statement was titled, ‘NIN-SIM Linkage: Federal Government Commends Compliance and Directs Telcos to Bar Outgoing Calls on Unlinked Lines from 4th April, 2022’.

It partly read, “Accordingly, Mr. President graciously approved the many requests to extend deadlines for the NIN-SIM linkage.

The Punch