NIN holders to pay N15,000 to correct date of birth, N5,000 for card renewal etc – Official

The NIMC regional coordinator, Fummi Opesanwo, disclosed this on Wednesday in Lagos.

PUNCH Newspaper reported that NIN enrollees will have to pay a token of N5,000 for card renewal or card replacement and an address modification fee of N500.

Ms Opesanwo said although NIN enrolment is free, there are charges attached to other services like the card renewal, correction of date of birth and change of address.

“For the date of birth correction, there is a processing fee of N15,000. For card renewal or card replacement, there is a processing fee of N5,000. For the modification of address or name, it is N500. So, people misconstrue this to mean that in NIMC they are asking them to pay money. No, those are for services.”Ms Opesanwo said

She said the fees are paid to the Treasury Single Account of the Federal Government. “For correction of date of birth, it is N15,000 and it is payable to the TSA,” she added.

The Nigerian government had directed telecommunication operators through the Nigerian Communication Commission to block subscribers who fail to link their mobile numbers to their NIN

The directive said subscribers were given a period of two weeks to link their numbers but was later extended to January 18 2021.

Subscribers without NIN have until February 9 to register and link to their numbers

While the holidays have ended, this newspaper has reported how huge crowds have reappeared at NIMC centres nationwide

Some NIMC officials have had to extort enrollees by cashing in on their desperation to get the NIN registration sorted out before the deadline given by the government expires.

Ms Opesanwo explained the rationale behind the huge crowd observed on Wednesday.

”When we came this morning, a lot of applicants complained that their SIM (cards) have been blocked and that is why we are experiencing this large number today.

“We are trying to manage the situation. Applicants have been seated and they came in for different services, so, there is no problem.

“We have to be mindful of the safety protocols and we cannot exceed the number of people, the capacity that we can take, we have to adhere to the guidelines,” she said.

The total number of mobile network connections was 207.58 million in October, but over 44 million Nigerians have NIN, thus 163 million telephone users are at the risk of being deactivated on January 19, 2021.