NIN Registration: We’re Under ‘Serious Pressure’, Says Enrollment Officer As Rivers NIMC Joins Nationwide Strike

Workers of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in Rivers State have joined their colleagues in other states to embark on the ongoing nationwide strike.

The striking NIMC workers are demanding salary increment, better welfare packages and Covid-19 protective items to safeguard and protect them from contracting the virus as Covid-19 cases keep rising across the country.

An enrolment officer at a centre of the NIMC in Rivers, Mr Olabisi Ojo, told THE WHISTLER on Thursday that workers of commission were facing increased number of people trooping into their offices due the Federal Government’s recent directive that all telecoms subscribers must link their SIM cards to a National Identity Number (NIN).

Tolu said this had increased workload and put workers at more risk of contracting Covid-19.

“We are confronted with a greater number of persons each day in our Head office here and the demands are quite overwhelming as we are placed on serious pressure to ensure we attend to everyone.

“The sudden demand by the government to disconnect lines not linked to a National Identity Number (NIN) caused the rush.

“We demand for total review of our pay and other welfare packages to motivate and enable us to deliver as the rush and crowd is more than anticipated. The government should have ensured they put all of this in place before embarking on this program that has caused Nigerians severe stress in a bid to meet up with the January 19th deadline.

“There are no Covid-19 protective kits at the office to ensure we the staff are safe as we attend to hundreds of individuals on a daily basis and this is also another major concern,” he said.

THE WHISTLER recalls that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had in a statement on Wednesday denied plans to carry out mass disconnection of SIM cards not linked to a NIN after the January 19 deadline.

The NCC said its attention was drawn to, “numerous publications in both print and electronic media regarding the unfounded fears of mass disconnection of telephone subscribers as a result of the ongoing linkage of SIM Registration Records with the National Identity Number (NIN).

“Most of these publications are based on the erroneous assumption that for every network or SIM connection, there is one unique human subscriber.

It added that, “if there are 43 million Nigerians with NINs, this could account for about 172 million SIMs already linked to NIN. It is very important to emphasize that the current exercise of linking NIN to SIM(s) is for the common good of all Nigerians, as it has far reaching benefits.

“Apart from enhancing our general safety, this will help in such vital exercises like National Budgeting, Policy Planning, Social Intervention programs and many more.”