The federal government has extended the deadline for the ongoing national identification number (NIN) and subscriber identity module (SIM) integration exercise by “a few days”.

Following the last extension, the exercise was meant to end on Thursday, March 31, 2022.

In a statement announcing the latest extension, Isa Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, urged citizens and legal residents to use the next few days to ensure that they complete the linkage.

To this end, the minister further directed that the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) should offer enrolment services round-the-clock for the next few days.

The statement was jointly signed by Ikechukwu Adinde, director of public affairs at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and Kayode Adegoke, head of corporate communications at the NIMC.

“On behalf of the Honourable Minister, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, and the Director-General/CEO of NIMC, Engr. Aliyu Aziz, urges citizens and legal residents to take advantage of the window to complete the process of enrolment and verification within the next few days,” the statement reads.

The NIN-SIM linkage exercise has been extended ten times.

The deadline, which was first set for January 19, 2021, has now been pushed forward for an unspecified number of days.