Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, has called on the newly inaugurated board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to link up SIM cards to National Identification Card and Bank Verification Number (BVN).
Pantami, who made the call at the inauguration, which held at the ministry’s headquarters on Thursday, in Abuja, said it is part of the policies of the present administration.
“Try to see how our sim registration will be linked up to our national identification card.
“It is also very important so that our BVN will all be linked up with our digital ID,” he said.
According to him, the policy is part of how the federal government intends to handle 9.4 million SIM cards, with some partially registered and some not.
“After that, President Muhammadu Buhari directed me to share that information with security agencies and also ask for their opinion on how to consolidate that achievement.
“As part of what they have sent to us, some responded that there are issues that we must address.
“One of them is total number of registered sim cards that each Nigerian should be allowed to have without difficulty,” he also said.
He also emphasised the need to restrict Nigerians to three SIM cards.
The minister advised that when individual asks for additional SIM card from the agreed number, they should provide justification for requiring additional one.
“In the document policy we have sent, we say possibly three, as part of regulation the board; we said possibly, possibly is not final.
“So it is flexible. This is based on what the Minister of Defence has sent to us,” he said.
He urged the board members to work hard and not take their work lightly.
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