The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has directed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to remove the N20 USSD charge imposed on subscribers for National Identification Number retrieval requests.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by the minister’s spokesperson, Uwa Suleiman, on Friday.
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.”
