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Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has directed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to immediately remove the N20 USSD fee imposed on subscribers for National Identification Number (NIN) retrieval requests.
The minister’s directive is an intervention aimed at making the NIN retrieval process easier and affordable, said a statement issued today in Abuja by to the minister’s spokesperson, Mrs. Uwa Suleiman.
It is also in response to complaints by Nigerians over what they deemed as exploitative.
Nigerian telephone subscribers are expected to link their NIN to their Subscriber Identification Modules within two weeks or face being yanked off networks. It is part of Abuja’s measures to tame rising cases of kidnapping and banditry.
Dial *346# code for NIN retrieval at no charge
In a letter conveying the implementation of the directive, the Executive Vice Chairman NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta and the Director General of NIMC, Mr. Aliyu Aziz informed Dr Pantami that the relevant authorities had met with, and negotiated a waiver with the mobile network operators in that regard.
By this waiver, all Nigerians, subscribers and applicants can access the service using the *346# code for their NIN retrieval at no charge for the duration of the NIN/SIM Card integration exercise.
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