Originally posted on Al Jazeera English.

In Nigeria, a deadline of a six month period given by the federal government to mobile phone subscribers to register their SIM cards, ends on Wednesday, without achieving its goal.

The government approved funding of over $38 million to the Nigerian Communication Commission for the exercise. The NCC said any SIM card that was not registered within the six month window would be disconnected from the nation's telecommunication networks.

But service operators say that the six month deadline is just too tight for such an enormous project. Nigeria is Africa's largest telephone market with over 90 million mobile phone users, out of a population of 150 million.

Inside story discusses with guests: Dan Meredith, senior producer, Al Jazeera Transparency Unit; Anthony Goldman, Nigeria analyst; and Ndidi Okpaluba, Etisalat Nigeria and Ibrahim Dikko, Etisalat.