Barely three weeks to the February 9 deadline for the enrolment, verification and linking of the National Identification Numbers (NIN) to Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards, telecoms operators have raised the alarm over the challenge they have with the backend integration of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
Reports suggest that one of the reasons several subscribers have not received confirmation from their network operators after submitting their NINs is because there has been no seamless confirmation from the backend of the NIMC.
In other words, for every NIN registered by Nigerians and sent to telecoms operators, the service providers are expected to confirm the authenticity (verification) of the owner from the backend of NIMC, but, according to one of the technical officials of MTN, this has remained very challenging.
“We are having challenges with the backend integration with the NIMC database because of the ancient backend support at the Commission. Some subscribers have sent their NINs to their network providers, and you will be told that it has been acknowledged, but it will not go through finally until we are able to check at the backend of NIMC to confirm the authenticity of the subscriber’s identity because we don’t have any way of knowing, except NIMC confirms.
“It is NIMC that is supposed to confirm that and get back to us. So many subscribers have sent their NINs, but the Commission is yet to confirm their authenticity. It is a serious challenge, which they are managing. It is also one of the reasons we cannot give the number of subscribers that we have verified to date.”
According to findings, this is one major reason so many subscribers, who have in the past two weeks submitted their NINs, have not been verified by the telcos, and subsequently no status information for them.
The Chairman of the Association of Telecoms Subscribers of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, confirmed this challenge.
Adebayo reportedly said: “Yes, we confirmed some challenges with integration at NIMC but that is part of what is being addressed as part of the challenge of the entire ecosystem. We expect that the issues will be resolved and it won’t result in any delays.”
The chairman of ALTON, who is a member of the digital ecosystem, also reportedly said operators would work closely with NIMC. He said the problem would be solved as more operators switch to live environment in NIMC integration.
According to him, ALTON is also providing a regular update for the regulator and “this, we expect will provide some advisory guidance towards the decision being made on the deadline.
“It’s still a lot of work but it is not impossible. We can only continue to appeal to subscribers for their patience and understanding.”
The Nigeria Coordinator, Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), Olusola Teniola, said the disclosure was an indication that NINs had not been harmonised with SIMReg database, which meant that until all owners of SIM cards submit their NINs they cannot know if a unique subscriber has covered all the SIMs registered in the country.
On the way forward, the A4AI Nigeria coordinator said the first thing to note is that the number of unique subscribers that accounts for the 207 million active SIMs to date is about 77 million.
According to him, he is not sure companies have a NIN but they can have many SIMs registered under their name. “So the major problem is NIMC being able to register 100 million Nigerians who may or may not have a SIM.
“The NIMC risk is in areas that are unserved or underserved, which have no infrastructure and this is where criminal activity exists. So realistically, FG cannot register those in those areas, which makes up approximately 30 million Nigerians that may have a SIM card.
This now presents an immediate challenge, if NIMC cannot capture these Nigerians by February 9, 2021, then those who have SIM cards should not be disconnected or blocked from using their SIMs.”
Teniola said the only way for the NIN-SIM project to succeed is an acknowledgement from FG that the deadline has to be extended and that NIN verification will require more time than currently planned alongside a schedule that ensures that all Nigerians and legible residents have been given the chance to register and acquire a NIN before linking the same with their SIMs.