The National Identity Management Commission has said it is upgrading its official website for the best performance as Nigerians contend to obtain their National Identity Numbers.
It noted that the site, nimc.gov.ng, did not crash, but the site would be restored today (Tuesday).
Last week, the Federal Government through the Nigerian Communication Commission had directed telecommunications companies to deactivate telephone lines of subscribers who failed to link their phones to their NIN within two weeks.
The government had to bow to pressure when many Nigerians in their thousands marched to the NIMC offices on Monday for their NIN registration, thereby flouting the Covid-19 measures by the government.
The government hereby extended the deadline to January 19, 2021 for subscribers with NIN and February 9 for those without NIN. The NIMC also shut down its offices in most parts of the country on Monday.
However as many Nigerian citizens rushed to the NIMC website, they have been left stranded due to server downtime.
The NIMC Spokesman, Kayode Adegoke, on Tuesday morning said, “Our site didn’t crash. We are upgrading the site, we are migrating it to a higher and better platform where information security will be topnotch.
“More users will be able to be on the site per time. It will also be able to accommodate more information. Information security is key. The site will be back today.”
The NIMC also announced that it would adopt a number-issuing style as it reopens its centres nationwide from Tuesday to ensure effective crowd control.
The NIMC explained that the NIN is used to connect all records about an individual into the National Identity Database and it is also used as a valid means of establishing or verifying individual identity.
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 December 31.