The National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers has appealed to the Nigerian Communications Commission for extension of the NIN-SIM linkage deadline from September 14 to September 30.

The National President, NATCOMS, Deolu Ogunbanjo, said during an interview on Sunday that it desired an extension due to the challenges of the National Identity Management Commission’s portal.

The NCC had set a deadline of September 14, 2024, for mobile users to link their Subscribers Identification Modules to their National Identification Number.

The NCC emphasised the importance of the NIN-SIM linkage for improving digital security and reducing fraud and cybercrime.

Mr Ogunbanjo said the two-week extension was needed for the NIMC to increase the capacity of its portal, adding that telecom operators at the customer centres usually struggled to upload on the NIMC portal.

He said that difficulty uploading on the NIMC portal frustrated the process and caused delay.

He stated, “As I visited the customer centres of Airtel and MTN, I witnessed firsthand the struggles they faced in uploading data to NIMC portal. The congestion was palpable, and the slow pace of uploads was frustrating. It was clear that the NIMC portal lacked the capacity to handle the surge in uploads, causing undue stress for telecom operators and their subscribers. I am appealing to the NCC to grant an extension of the deadline to September 30, to allow more time for NIMC to expand its portal capacity.’’

Mr Ogunbanjo said that this would alleviate the current difficulties, and ensure a smoother experience for stakeholders.

Checks at some customer centres, a food vendor, Zainab Olajide, said that though the process of linking and unbarring her SIM was seamless, the operators of the centre, however, demanded N1000 before attending to her.

Mrs Olajide said that failure to pay the money meant that the customer would not be attended to, adding that the agents at the centre took advantage of the situation due to the crowd.

She said that though she got to the centre at 10 a.m., her number was 282, pleading that an extension of the deadline would enable more people get back online.

Also, a consultant, Clement Umeadi, also decried the extortion that took place at his customer centre at Alagbado.

Mr Umeadi said that the most annoying thing for him was paying N2000 to unblock his two barred lines.

He stressed that the NIN-SIM linkage should be a continuous process with no set deadline, saying that such deadlines encouraged unwholesome practices.

Also, at a customer centre in Opebi, an accountant, Josh Manuel, said the registration process was seamless, adding that despite the crowd, there was orderliness and effective management.

He said that the agents were professional in handling the process and no money was demanded.

“I was forced to appreciate the officials I met, especially, the security for their professionalism in handling the crowd,’’ he said.

An employee at a customer centre, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the turnover of subscribers desiring to beat the deadline was impressive.

She said that, prior to the present extension, subscribers were in the habit of rushing at the last minute, but that was not the case at the centre.

A teacher, Olusola Oke, lamented the slow pace of uploads at a customer centre in Ogba.

Mrs Oke said that the crowd at the centre was as a result of the slow pace of work, which she described as frustrating.

According to her, it was after her third early morning visit to the centre that her line was unbarred.

She, however, called for an extension of the exercise to enable more people to have their lines unbarred, especially those who had faced the similar experience of slow pace of work.

An agent at the customer centre, Ogba, Quadri Adegoke, noted that verification on the National Identity Management Commission was not encouraging.

Mr Adegoke said it had slowed the pace of work and made the whole process frustrating.

He said that it was hard to determine whether the slow uploads was as a result of the ongoing construction work in the area that might have tampered with the network or the traffic on NIMC’s website.

(NAN)