The Federal Government has directed telecommunication companies in the country to bar all outgoing calls on unlinked lines from Monday, April 4, 2022.
Unlinked lines are Subscriber Identity Modules not yet registered and linked with the National Identification Number by users.
The government says over 125 million SIMs have had their NINs submitted for linkage, verification, and authentication and NIMC has issued over 78 million unique NINs to date.
The government explained that the NIN-SIM linkage had been extended on multiple occasions to allow Nigerians to freely comply with the policy.
It added that the enrolment for NIN was a continuous exercise as it was a precondition for service in telecommunication companies, banks, Nigerian Immigration Service, and several other government agencies.