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Four million, seven hundred and sixty-nine thousand, six hundred and eighty-five million subscribers have gotten Subscriber Identity Modules since the Federal Government barred outgoing calls from SIMs that have not been linked to their National Identification Numbers. This is according to new subscriber data from the Nigerian Communications Commission. When the Federal Government barred lines that were not linked to their NINs in early April to enforce its SIM-NIN policy, there were about 199.20 million subscribers connected to the national network. At the time, the government revealed that about 125 million SIMs had submitted their NINs for linkage and over 78 million unique NINs had been issued. This left about 72.77 million subscribers on the receiving end of the directive. A joint statement signed by the then Director of Public Affairs of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, and the Head, Corporate Communications at the Nigeria Identity Management Commission, Mr Kayode Adegoke, said, “President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the implementation of the policy with effect from April 4, 2022. Consequently, the Federal Government has directed all telcos to strictly enforce the policy on all SIMs issued (existing and new) in Nigeria.

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