The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has enrolled 86 million Nigerians into the National Identity Database and issued them the National Identification Number (NIN) from 2012 to July 2022.
The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of NIMC, Malam Aliyu Aziz, made this known during a “Lunch Time Seminar” organised by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) in Abuja on Friday.
Aziz who spoke via zoom said that the commission has not relented in its effort to establish National Identity Database (NIDB), register citizens and non-citizens and issue unique identifier NIN, among others.
He reiterated the commission’s commitment to provide identity authentication and verification services, harmonise and integrate existing ID databases, preserve, protect, secure and safeguard the data in the NIDB.
“NIMC works to collaborate with public and private sector to realize the ID functions and regulate the Nigerian Identity sector.
“The Commission embarked on an enrolment strategy in 2012, which has grown exponentially since 2015. The current goal is to have enrolled 10 times the number of the previous year.
“The enrolment shows 60,000 in 2012, seven million in 2015, 28 million in 2017, 43 million in 2020 and 86 million as at July 2022 with about 18,000 enrolment centres across Nigeria,’’ Aziz said.
He added that so far, the commission has been harmonising Bank Verification Number ( BVN), mandatory use of NIN for passport application and renewal and implementation of ecosystem approach to enrolment.
“Others are the national ID policy for SIM card registration, national policy on digital ID for internally displaced persons, use of NIN for JAMB, completed assessments on technical, cyber security, social, environmental, financial, among others.”
The DG urged BPSR to assist in building and strengthening collaborations and promote the participation of government agencies in the data capture services.
He also called on the bureau to drive the enforcement of the mandatory use of NIN for services across governments, as well as support and participate in driving the integration the NIN into various functional databases across government agencies.
Aziz said that BPRS should also accelerate participation in sensitisation of key government agencies’ stakeholders on the ID project, including the harmonisation of all government databases with the national identity database for more effective and low-cost governance.
He also urged the bureau to encourage government agencies to be innovative using the NIN, and collecting and verifying data for NIN issuance and usage at various government service points, among others.
Also speaking, the DG of BPSR, Mr Dasuki Arabi said that the essence of the lunch time seminar was to help Nigerians keep abreast with reforms in public service delivery.
He said that the NIMC DG was featured for the seminar so that Nigerians would appreciate the effort of the commission towards achieving a single national identifier.
According to him, the national identifier is where existing forms of identification such as National Drivers License and International Passports would be aligned and synchronised.
He added that participants would also get answers to some pressing questions such as the achievements of NIMC towards data harmonization, challenges and way forward towards National Digital Identity Ecosystem Reforms.