Nigerians speak out against new SIM card registration policy 01:28 (CNN)Doctors in Nigeria have criticized a mass national identification registration policy, involving tens of millions of citizens, as Covid-19 cases and deaths rise in the country.
Nigeria which has Africa s largest population has recorded about
half of its more than 140,000 cases in the last 10 weeks, according to data from John Hopkins University. The number of cases has continued to rise, and it is putting undue pressure on our health facilities, Mukhtar Muhammad, the national incident manager of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19, told CNN. If we are not able to control the number of cases or provide more facilities, I am afraid certainly it is only a matter of time before the system becomes overwhelmed.
FG asks mobile operators to establish SIM swap centres in 774 councils guardian.ng - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from guardian.ng Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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This was part of the resolution reached at the Ministerial Task Force meeting on the NIN-SIM registration held at the weekend, and chaired by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami.
Key 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.
The Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission, Aliyu Aziz, in this interview speaks on a number of issues around the enrolment target for the National Identification Number and SIM linkage. Emma Okonji brings the excerpts:
The federal government has a target date for National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to enrol all Nigerians and legal residents. Are you on course to meet this target, and what is the total enrolled as of now?
Thank you for that question, and for the opportunity to address Nigerians through your esteemed media organisation. The federal government’s statement was first made in 2018 upon the federal executive council’s approval of the strategic roadmap for accelerating digital identity project using ecosystem approach. The target of year 2022 was on the premise of partnership with public and private sector agencies to support the commission in data capturing services and making the National Identification Number (NIN) enrolment cent