Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Isa Ibrahim has directed the Nigerian Communications Commission and the National Identity Management Commission to remove the N20 USSD fee imposed on subscribers for National Identification Number retrieval requests.
Spokesperson for the minister Uwa Suleiman in a statement on Friday said the government ordered telecommunication service providers to stop the deduction for NIN retrieval.
The NCC had recently asked telcos to block SIM cards not registered with NIN after two weeks.
The statement read, “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.”
