Nigerians without NIN risk 14 years in prison, says Minister

The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, announces that Nigerians without a National Identification Number (NIN) risk 14 years imprisonment.

Pantami, on Thursday, addressed the issue of NIN at the weekly Presidential Media conference planned by the Presidential Communication Media Team in Abuja.

As indicated by him, 51 million Nigerians have registered for the National Identification Number (NIN) as of March 31, 2021.

While urging Nigerians to register for NIN, the minister cautioned that “those yet to obtain the NIN risk seven or 14 years imprisonment” as specified by the Nigerian Constitution.

Pantami clarified that while procuring a SIM card may be optional, NIN is compulsory, stating that a lot of transactions in the nation are not supposed to be executed without NIN.

He added, “Based on the requirement by law each and every citizen and legal resident must obtain his/her National Identification Number, which is being coordinated by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC). It’s a requirement by law, but many citizens ignore it.

“What we achieved in the area of enrolment from the time Mr President has directed me to supervise NIMC till date is unprecedented and we would continue to ensure that in the next few years we have an almost a complete data base of all our citizens in the country.

“No country will be successful in education, health, budget planning or national planning without data base 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.”