Mobile subscribers trying to complete SIM swaps or buy new ones across the country have been unable to do so due to the unavailability of National Identity Management Commission’s NIN Verification Service (NVS).
The affected NIMC portal enables telecom firms, the Nigerian Immigration Service, banks and other organisations to verify the National Identity Number of their customers before attending to them, in line with the Federal Government’s directive.
Following the directive by Nigerian Communications Commission for the inclusion of NIN in the requirements for all new and existing SIM cards, telecom firms are required to synchronise their SIM registration portals with the NIMC portal in order to verify the details of their subscribers.
However, the downtime experienced over the past five days by NIMC portal has made it almost impossible for telecom firms to sell new SIM cards or retrieve lost lines.
In a statement, the NIMC said its NIN verification service was down due to maintenance being executed by its service provider.
The statement was titled ‘NIMC NIN verification service temporarily unavailable.”
It read;
The National Identity Management Commission wishes to inform the general public that its NIN Verification Service is temporarily unavailable due to the maintenance service being carried out by one of the Commission’s network service providers.
The NIMC wants to assure the public that verification and authentication services would be restored once the maintenance is concluded.
The commission apologises for any inconveniences this might cause our esteemed customers, and all hands are on deck to ensure speedy restoration. Meanwhile, the public can make use of the alternative tokenisation verification platform.
On his part, President, National Association of Telecoms Subscribers, Adeolu Ogunbanjo, said the association was aware of the NIMC server downtime and had been duly informed that the situation was being handled.
He stated;
I learnt it’s a network issue. It’s something they’re looking at. I called two operators, especially the regulatory officials and they said they were working on it and that it would soon be restored. It’s rather unfortunate, but what do you do? I’m sure NCC knows about it.
What I’ve not done is to talk to the NCC, and that is because the operators have said it’s an issue they are addressing. I want to go to Alausa tomorrow to find out what is happening apart from what the operators have told me.
Responding to complaints from users, MTN Nigeria said;
NIMC application is currently unavailable. Please bear with us as we are unable to process sim swap and upgrade requests at the moment. Feedback will be shared as soon as the issue is resolved. Apologies for the inconvenience this may cause you.
However, in a statement obtained by Channels Television on Monday, NIMC spokesperson Kayode Adegoke said;
No one should be debarred of any service on the guise of NIN not being verified. Even though the NIN verification service (NVS) might be down due to maintenance by one of our service providers of its infrastructure, the alternative platform – TOKENISATION is up and running.
There is the need to ask questions from the Telcos, NIS, Banks and others on the reason for turning down customers in the guise of NIN not being verified due to the temporary unavailability of the NVS, while the alternative platform- Tokenization is working!!!
He added;
NIMC NVS platform is not the only verification platform available for use, but Tokenisation which protects the identity of NIN holders is also up and running!!!
And for accurate information, it is not a NIMC problem, rather, a government service provider has embarked on maintenance of its infrastructure, which has affected most government agencies that rely on it for the provision of IT service. But for us in NIMC, the TOKENIZATION is available for the verification of the NIN before rendering services.
Last month, a hacker identified as Sam claimed he had found a bug on the NIMC server that could be used breach the system.
However, NIMC at the time debunked the hacker’s claims, saying;
Over the years, through painstaking efforts, NIMC has built a robust and credible system for Nigeria’s identity database.
