The House of Representatives has urged the Nigerian Communications Commission to extend its ultimatum to block phone numbers without National Identification Numbers (NIN) by 10 weeks.
The lawmakers took the decision while adopting a motion brought under matters of urgent national importance by the minority leader, Ndudi Elumelu.
The federal government had on Tuesday ordered all telecommunication service providers to ask its subscribers to provide their NIN within two weeks.
Subscribers who fail to do so within the time frame are to be blocked from using their SIM cards.
The resolution was reached at a meeting between the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy and stakeholders in the communication industry on Monday.
The resolution was disclosed by the spokesperson of the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) in a statement on Tuesday.
The major telephone networks in Nigeria are MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat.
The meeting affirmed the earlier directive to suspend the registration of new SIM cards by all operators.
Emphasising the need for the extension, Mr Elumelu said two weeks was too little for the over 200 million Nigerians, especially considering the Christmas period.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
