The Federal Government has just extended the deadline for the integration for the national identification number (NIN) and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) integration exercise till May 6.

According to TheCable, Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy,  announced the extension on Friday after getting approval from President Muhammadu Buhari.

The development came less than 24 hours after the minister was quoted to have said Nigerians are not entitled to enjoy any government services without the NIN.

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“For you to enjoy any government service without having a National Identity Number is an offence. Section 29 says if you do any of these in Section 27 without obtaining National Identity, you have committed a crime that will lead to fine or imprisonment or both of them,” he had been quoted as saying.

Earlier, a court sitting in Lagos ordered Pantami’s ministry to jettison the plan to block the SIM of citizens who fail to link their SIM cards to NIN by April 6, 2021.

However, this is not the first time the NIN registration would  be extended. In February, the government similarly extended the exercise by eight weeks.