NIN Portal Shuts Down, Sim Swaps Suspended

By Uche Mbah

The large crowds noticed at Mobile subscription centers have been ascribed to non availability of National Identity Numbers which is putting Sim Swaps on hold.

Reports of the crash of the National Identity Management Commission database had filtered in last month.

A hacker had claimed to have breached the database and accessed millions of data.

Government has, however, denied that the NIMC data was breached.

But responding to complaints from users, MTN Nigeria confirmed the unavailability of the data link.

“NIMC application is currently unavailable. Please bear with us as we are unable to process SIM swap and upgrade requests at the moment. Feedback will be shared as soon as the issue is resolved. Apologies for the inconvenience this may cause you”, the Telecom giant said.

In response to the incessant queries, the NIMC on Saturday, confirmed the problem which it attributed to ongoing maintenance.

“The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) wishes to inform the general public that its NIN verification Service (NVS) is temporarily unavailable due to the maintenance service being carried out by one of the Commission’s Network Service Providers,” the statement said.

“The NIMC wants to assure the public that verification and authentication services would be restored once the maintenance is concluded.

“The Commission apologises for any inconvenience this might cause our esteemed customers, as all hands are on deck to ensure speedy restoration.

“Meanwhile, the public can make use of the alternative Tokenisation verification platform”, it concluded.