The federal government has ordered all telecoms operators in the country to stop charging Nigerians to retrieve their National Identification Numbers (NIN).
This is contained in a statement emanating from the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
According to the statement, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami gave the order.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) were made to ensure the telcos comply to remove the N20 USSD fee imposed on subscribers for NIN retrieval requests.
“The Minister’s directive which takes immediate effect, is an intervention aimed at making the process easier and affordable.
“In a letter conveying the implementation of the directive, the Executive Vice Chairman NCC and the Director General of NIMC, informed Dr Pantami that the relevant authorities had met with, and negotiated a waiver with the Mobile Network Operators in that regard.
“By this waiver, all Nigerians, subscribers and applicants can access the service using the *346# code for their NIN retrieval at no charge for the duration of the NIN/SIM Card integration exercise,” the statement reads.
Recall that the Federal Government had earlier directed that all National Identification Numbers be integrated with Subscriber Identification Modules for security purposes.