Another NIN-SIM deadline that may not be cast in stone

From the onset, people were not so much against the SIM-NIN Linkage policy of the Nigerian government, especially for the reasons it was introduced, for the fidelity of our electronic business transactions, now digital economy, and for the security of lives in our nation.

But people railed at the timing, which was during the COVID-19 period, a time people couldn’t mass together in an environment, when humanity failed the test of being their neighbour’s keeper, as visitations, meetings and office operations were migrated online – the policy achieved the direct opposite; and the very brash way the policy was introduced with obvious betrayal of inadequate preparations and a lack of readiness that could hardly be understood in a serious government setting.

The policy was introduced with boldness and bravura by mid December 2020, and was designed to last for two weeks. Just two weeks! The end of the project, I can faithfully inform you now, stretches into the future without dates.

Just what is he talking about? Just the same way you are thinking. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), last week, with some gloat, announced September 14, 2024, as the new date for the process to be fully completed, directing the mobile operators to deactivate all SIMs not properly harmonised with their NINs by September 15, 2024.

“To ensure full compliance with the NIN-SIM linkage policy, the NCC has directed all Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to complete the mandatory verification and linkage of SIMs to NINs by September 14, 2024.

“Effective September 15, 2024, the Commission expects that no SIM operating in Nigeria will be without a valid NIN,” the statement said.

For the umpteenth time, the NCC has given a deadline for a project which a former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy started with hubris, but will it be cast in stone this time? The answer doesn’t readily appeal to me but one thing that is sure is that, overtime the regulator has made itself laughable, not because it is unable to complete a project that looked simple and over which so much money has been expended, but also because it has nearly lost its regulatory capacity to say something and enforce compliance.

Feeling very upbeat about its latest communication on the subject, the NCC in the statement signed by Public Affairs Director, Reuben Muoka, said “the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is pleased to announce significant progress in the Federal Government’s 2020 policy to link all Subscribers Identification Modules (SIMs) to National Identity Numbers (NINs). To date over 153m SIMs have been successfully linked to a NIN, reflecting an impressive rate of 96 per cent, a substantial increase from 69. 7 per cent in January 2024.”

After all the missteps from the beginning of the project, this really is a whiff of good news but it also has substantial variance with reality. Everyday new SIMs are being sold which status remains undetermined while already there is still a huge difference between 153m already processed, and the 219m SIMs held by subscribers as at March this year, prompting one newspaper to report that by the time the project comes to a close in September, there will still be over 50m SIMs out there unable to satisfy the integrity of the process.

But there are more reasons to worry. The NCC statement gives me the jitters. “Through collaboration with the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the NCC has uncovered alarming cases where individuals processed an unusually high number of SIM cards – some exceeding 100, 000,” the statement said.

Security concerns in the country are hitting frenetic levels. Bandits have taken over roads and forests, killing and maiming and kidnapping for ransom. A major reason for the introduction of the policy was to help curb insecurity. It was once seen as a silver bullet to cure nearly every security challenge but such expectations have since been dashed.

The policy allows an individual to register a maximum of four SIMs, thereby raising serious concerns how a few individuals could possess the number of SIMs stated in the NCC statement . This writer has no information on anybody arrested for such a seeming brazen contravention and going through prosecution at the moment. What would anybody be doing with 10 SIMs, 20 SIMs or even 100 or 1000 SIMs? What is going on here that nobody is ready to talk about?

The NCC has also declared in the statement that “the sale and purchase of pre-registered SIMs are criminal offences punishable by imprisonment and fines.” I expect the NCC to mount a full media campaign around this so that some low-level players embedded in the value chain can be educated and avoid the full wrath of the law.

Will this deadline be cast in stone? I don’t think so. Reasons. There are a number of stakeholders in the ecosystem whose response may determine what happens next. One, the subscribers, members of the public, who are dragged and defocused by the daily concerns of life, to the extent that they may not give so much thought to the NCC’s position until the very last minute.

The other stakeholders in the ecosystem are the operators who own the platforms on which the entire conversation is taking place. They maintain a database of all their subscribers and are able to quickly look up anything they want to know or see on the dashboard. This writer has been reliably informed by an industry source that the NCC deadline is quite fair to the operators and that implementation and compliance with directives may not be difficult. The process of implementing the directive may also determine whether it will stoke a bedlam as we saw previously. The industry source has assured that this time, the operators are on top of the game. The substance to this small boast will be seen in the days ahead.

There is yet another party in the ecosystem. NIMC, which maintains the National Identity Database, has a finishing responsibility in the NIN-SIM linkage policy process as it has to conduct the final harmonisation process. However, even with resource support from the industry, plus government budgeting, its capacity to really support the process and play its complementary role, has remained in doubt. There is a concourse of opinion that NIMC lacks the capacity to play this game. Nobody knows however, whether the coming of Engr Bisoye Coker-Odusote as chief executive. has provided the magic wand to switch its fortunes for good. Again, NIMC’s readiness will unfold in the days to come.

Here is my humble conclusion. There will always be errant SIMs out there. There will always be people who will not want to register their SIMs for whatever reasons. But it is the responsibility of the NCC to take a decision that sticks, a decision that binds all the players in the telecommunications ecosystem, especially in the face of festering security challenges. The NCC should play its role and, in the process, stimulate the nation’s security system to apply some of the provisions of modern technology to resolve daunting security challenges confronting us as a nation.