The Federal Government will achieve 100% National ID enrollment of Nigerians over the next five years, the ID manager agency says.
Engineer Aliyu Aziz, Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), told an international ID forum that the 2024 target is part of efforts underway “to provide a lifelong unique identification for every individual physically residing in Nigeria and Nigerians in the diaspora within the next five years.”
Engineer Aliyu Aziz, Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), told an international ID forum that the 2024 target is part of efforts underway “to provide a lifelong unique identification for every individual physically residing in Nigeria and Nigerians in the diaspora within the next five years.”
Engineer Aliyu Aziz, Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)
NIMC: National ID Number (NIN) now mandatory for:
- Issuance of passport,
- Registration of voters,
- Opening of bank accounts,
- All consumer credit transactions,
- Purchase of insurance policies,
- Transactions with social security implications,
- All land-related transactions,
- Transactions specified under the contributory health insurance scheme,
- Payment of taxes,
- Transactions pertaining to pension,
- Admission into schools and all other relevant government services.
The nation’s ID manager says that starting January 1, this year, “government began the mandatory enforcement of the use of the National Identification Number (NIN) for such services like application for and issuance of passport, registration of voters, opening of bank accounts, all consumer credit transactions, purchase of insurance policies, transactions with social security implications, all land related transactions, transactions specified under the contributory health insurance scheme, payment of taxes, transactions pertaining to pension, admission into schools and all other relevant government services.”
Aziz told attendees at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Identity for Africa (ID4Africa) Movement, which attracted over 1,500 delegates at the world’s largest identity for development gathering, that held recently in Johannesburg, South Africa, that Nigeria was determined to achieve the target and key into the digital economy.
He says that for Nigeria to enhance governance, help its people rise out of poverty, restore growth and participate in the digital economy, “we need a unique digital identification platform that is linked to functional ID registries for accessing services.”
Under the plan, Nigeria is executing a digital identity ecosystem project endorsed last September 2018 by the Federal Executive Council, the highest decision-making organ of government.
In his presentation, ‘Digital Identity the Cornerstone to Effective Service Delivery’, Aziz underscores the strategic national roadmap vision “to reach universal coverage of robust digital identification in Nigeria” by applying an ecosystem approach of enrolling citizens of all ages and legal residents within the set time frame.
“The ecosystem approach of enrolment will constitute trusted partners, and a pay-per-play model for successful enrolments,” Engr. Aziz said, adding “the purpose of the ecosystem approach is to leverage existing capabilities and enrolment facilities of government agencies, partners and private sector operators in Nigeria, as opposed to building new ones”, the NIMC DG says.
Such ecosystem approach leverages the capacity of “all ID stakeholders in the ecosystem to reach full coverage of the target population.”
The NIMC DG listed some unique and beneficial features of the digital ID ecosystem approach to include, among others:
- Federal Government-led initiative to collect biometric data nationwide in one go;
- coordinated effort to avoid duplicating data collection at high cost and time;
- leverage existing ecosystem of Government agencies (including Federal, State and LGAs) and Private sector organisations;
- NIMC facilitates collecting identity data (biometric and demographic data)
- Partners collect data and are paid per successful enrolment;
- NIMC stores data and uses same to offer a Unique ID.
Some of the stakeholders and partners in the ecosystem approach include the National Population Commission, Nigeria Immigration Service, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Central Bank of Nigeria, National Health Insurance Scheme, National Independent Electoral Commission and the Federal Road Safety Commission.
Others include the Corporate Affairs Commission, Nigerian Communications Commission, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, the Nigeria Police Force and the National Pension Commission, according to Aziz.
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