The National Identity Management Commission, on Tuesday, issued fresh guidelines for applicants to obtain their National Identification Number.

NIMC spokesman, Kayode Adegoke, made this known in a statement titled, ‘NIMC Adopts Booking System For NIN Enrolment’.

The statement partly read, “Mindful of the second wave of the COVID-19 which continues to severely affect public health and cause unprecedented disruptions, the Commission wishes to announce that it has adopted a couple of measures to contain the spread of the virus whilst ensuring its services to Nigerians are not entirely interrupted.

“Effective December 30, 2020, attending to applicants would be based on Booking System. For Bookings, applicants are to visit any of the NIMC Offices closest to them during stipulated business hours (9am – 1pm).

“Once admitted into the office, a Number-Issuing queue management system will be in place to ensure orderliness and strict adherence to Covid-19 Protocols.”

The Commission also urged all applicants to use their face masks, observe social distancing and wash their hands while at its centres nationwide.

The PUNCH had earlier reported that the Federal Government through the Nigerian Communication Commission ordered telecommunications companies to deactivate telephone lines of subscribers who failed to link their phones to their National Identity Number.

Large crowd thronging the NIMC web portal for the process of obtaining their National Identity Number led to the crash of the portal last week.

Large crowds also resurfaced at NIMC centres nationwide on Tuesday after the Christmas break.

As of October, the total number of mobile network connections was 207.58 million, but currently, only 43 million Nigerians have NIN, thus 164 million telephone users are at the risk of being deactivated on January 19, 2021. (The PUNCH)