Nigeria News

Why NIN Verification Portal Is Down – NIMC Speaks

Published

7 February 2022

9:30 AM

In the suit number FHC/L/CS/711/2022 filed at the Federal High Court in Lagos, SERAP sought an order to set aside the directive by Buhari to telecommunications companies to block outgoing calls on all unlinked lines without due process of law. SERPA joined the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, and his Communications and Digital Economy counterpart, Isa Pantami as respondents in the suit. READ ALSO: SERAP Gives FG 48-Hour Ultimatum To Unblock Millions Of Unregistered SIMs “While Nigerian authorities have a legal responsibility to protect, ensure and secure the rights to life and property, any such responsibility ought to be discharged in conformity with human rights standards,” the suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers Kolawole Oluwadare and Opeyemi Owolabi, read in part. “Fundamental rights are regarded as part of human rights and are protected to enhance human dignity and liberty. “Unblocking the phone lines unlawfully barred from making calls would improve respect for the rule of law, and ensure people’s right to freedom of expression, and access to information, as well as their right to associate with others. “The blocking of people from making calls constitutes impermissible restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, information, and association. “The rights to freedom of opinion and expression and access to information are protected under section 39 of the Nigerian Constitution, article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act. “These rights must be protected online as they are protected offline. Any restriction on these rights must be provided by law, be necessary for a democratic society and serve a legitimate aim. “The blocking of people from making calls on their SIMs also amounts to arbitrary or unlawful interference with their right to family life, and socio-economic rights, as it unnecessarily or disproportionately interferes with these fundamental human rights. “The decision to block the phone lines also appears to be arbitrary and lacks any legal framework, independent and judicial oversight. This may allow authorities to act in an unfettered and potentially arbitrary or unlawful manner. “Under international human rights law, States including Nigeria ‘shall not engage in or condone any disruption of access to digital technologies for segments of the public or an entire population.’ States must refrain from cutting off access to telecommunications services. “Millions of Nigerians including persons with disabilities, elderly citizens, persons living in remote areas have been unable to capture their biometrics, and obtain their NINs due to logistical challenges, administrative and bureaucratic burdens, as well as the persistent collapse of the national grid. “The rights to freedom of expression, access to information, and freedom of association, whether offline or online, promote the democratic ideal by allowing citizens to voice their concerns, challenge governmental institutions, and hold the government accountable for its actions.”

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has revealed the reason behind the inaccessibility of its verification portal by Nigerians.

Naija News gathered that millions of Nigerians who are seeking to retrieve their lost Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards or get new lines have been unable to do so for the past five days due to a downtime experienced by the NIMC portal.

The NIMC verification portal allows telecom operators to verify and link the National Identity Number (NIN) of their customers to their SIMs in line following the Federal Government’s directive.

Also, the verification portal allows the Nigerian Immigration Service, financial institutions and other government agencies to verify the NIN of their customers before attending to them.

The telcos are required to synchronise their SIM registration portals with the NIMC portal in order to verify the details of their subscribers but cannot do that due to a technical glitch in the commission’s server.

Reacting to the development in a statement, the NIMC said the reason for the downtime on the verification portal is due to maintenance being executed by its service provider.

NIMC, in the statement titled ‘NIMC NIN verification service temporarily unavailable”, added that verification and authentication services would be restored once the maintenance is concluded.

The commission advised Nigerians to make use of the alternative tokenisation verification platform pending the conclusion of the maintenance ongoing.

It, therefore, apologised for any inconveniences this might cause Nigerians who needed to use the portal.

The statement reads, “The National Identity Management Commission wishes to inform the general public that its NIN Verification Service is temporarily unavailable due to the maintenance service being carried out by one of the Commission’s network service providers.

“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 inconveniences this might cause our esteemed customers, and all hands are on deck to ensure speedy restoration. Meanwhile, the public can make use of the alternative tokenisation verification platform.”