The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, said on Monday that SIM cards previously linked to the National Identification Numbers, NIN, were barred because they were bad.
It also explained that the job of using NIN to track kidnappers currently terrorising the country is that of the police.
NCC spokesman, Reuben Muoka, who explained in an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, The Morning Brief, said: “People who probably didn’t get a cleared or verified NIN” had been barred because “the earlier ones they submitted were not good.”
He said some SIM cards had verification and identification issues, such as disparity in information, including names and other data.
“There are still some subscribers whose NINs are yet to be verified by the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, and those have to also be corrected,” Muoka said.
He said subscribers will have to visit the outlets of their service providers to validate their NINs and resolve other matters.
Muoka added: “For now, it requires those physical visits to the stations to get them verified and validated but in the future, we hope this will be done virtually.’’
