Nigerians without NIN could be jailed for 14 years - Communications Minister

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has warned that Nigerians who fail to register for the National Identification Number (NIN) could be behind bars for 14 years.

According to him, the constitution has made provisions for Nigerians who flout the directive to be jailed for seven or fourteen years.

He made the statement at the weekly media briefing at the State House in Abuja.

Pantami also announced that 51 million citizens have so far been enrolled for NIN as of March 31, 2021.

“Based on the requirement by law, each and every citizen and legal resident must obtain his/her National Identification Number (NIN), which is being coordinated by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

“It’s a requirement by law but many citizens ignore it.

“No country will be successful in education, health, budget planning or national planning without a database of its citizens in place.

“What I inherited in the database was less than 20 per cent of our population. But we want to ensure that before we leave office we would look at the database and be proud of our country," the minister said.

According to Pantami, only 150 million out of the 189 million mobile phone subscribers have successfully completed their NIN linkage, while the rest have problems of improper registration.

The minister stated that while obtaining a SIM card may be optional, NIN is mandatory, noting that a lot of transactions in the country should not be carried out without NIN.