Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Pantami lamented the large number of applicants that throng the offices of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

“Citizens will go there, their names are not part of those to be captured but they will go and stay at the gates, and if you ask them to leave they will not. Even the security agencies plead with them but they will not go,” he said.

“All the crowds you have been seeing in Abuja or Lagos, 90 percent or even 95 percent of them were not part of those invited to be captured. They only go there and stay outside the gates.

“This is the problem we are having. It has nothing to do with the commission, it is with the citizens. We need to change our attitude.”

Pantami said his ministry and NIMC are working on transforming the NIN enrolment process and the onward linkage to SIM cards as required by the Nigerian Communication Commission.

The minister explained that his ministry, NIMC and telecommunication operators would review the entire NIN linkage to SIM cards by network users should the Federal Government impose a fresh lockdown amid the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We developed an app, when you go online, you will see it. That app, as long as you have your NIN, you will only download it without visiting any office. You will be able to link up to seven SIM numbers to only one. I have already downloaded the app, launched the app, and already linked some of my numbers immediately. This is part of digitalisation,” he added.