Telecommunications operators said SIM-related services such as registration and activation have not yet fully resumed.

This is contrary to the outright claims by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) that services have been fully restored.

Telcos under the aegis of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) noted, however, that engagements are ongoing with NIMC and other key stakeholders to address the bottlenecks and enable a full restoration of services.

In a chat with The Guardian, yesterday, ALTON Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, confirmed that the NIMC platform is currently operational. He, however, said there are still pockets of technical hitches being experienced.

He said these are expected to ease out in the coming days as system stability improves.

Adebayo said in the meantime, due to new rules and compliance requirements recently issued by NIMC regarding the National Identification Number (NIN) verifications, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are proceeding with caution. This is to ensure that all verification and integration processes are fully aligned with the new directives.

“As a result, SIM-related services such as registration and activation have not yet fully resumed. However, engagements are ongoing with NIMC and other key stakeholders to address the bottlenecks and enable a full restoration of services as soon as possible.

“We appreciate the patience and understanding of subscribers during this transitional period,” he stated.

Also a senior official in one of the telecommunications firms confirmed to The Guardian that there are still challenges with the portal.

Earlier, in a public notice to Nigerians, NIMC said the modification platform is up and running, adding that “also our enrolment, verification, and authentication services are functional. Kindly contact us on all our social media platforms or contact the NIMC contact centre on [email protected] for any issue.”

Meanwhile, NIMC has issued a total of 121 million NINs to Nigerians at home and in the diaspora as of June 30, 2025. The figure by last December stood at 114 million.

Going by the data, the highest cumulative enrollment figure of over 12.9 million was recorded in Lagos State.

The state has maintained the top spot since the beginning of the registration exercise alongside Kano State, which occupied the second position with 11.07 million enrolments as of June 2025.

Kaduna State displaced Ogun to occupy the third position with 7.1 million, while the latter placed 4th 5.06 million enrolments.

In terms of the gender distribution of the enrollees, the NIMC data reveals that 68.4 million, representing 56.5 per cent of Nigerians so far captured in the NIN database, are male. On the flip side, 52.9 million, representing 43.5 per cent of the total enrollees, are female.

To further deepen enrolment and meet the target of enrolling 95 per cent of Nigerians by the end of this year, NIMC is deploying Youth Corps members to cover hitherto unreachable areas through its Ward Enrolment initiative.

“The Corps members selected are currently undergoing intensive training in preparation for the kick-off of the ward enrollment.

NIMC DG/CEO, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, asserted that the Ward Enrollment exercise, when completed, will allow the government to know the actual number of Nigerians and make it easy to plan effectively for the citizens.