National ID system will ‘better secure Nigeria’

Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Mohammed Rabiu Dabo, Chairman, Military Pension Board, says Nigeria’s security will be better assured when the National Identity Management System (NIMS) becomes operational.

“The National identity management system is the way to go for Nigeria. This is the first time we will have a central identity database, and a verification platform. It will no doubt support the intelligence agencies in the country to perform their duties, especially in this era of insurgence.”

Dabo disclosed this when the Director General/CEO, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Barrister Chris Onyemenam paid him a working visit recently at the Military Pension Board Headquarters in Abuja, to discuss areas of collaboration.

Following presentations by the NIMC DG on the NIMS projects and the NIMC Verification and authentication platform, Dabo expressed satisfaction on the Commission’s achievements especially on the creation and maintenance of a central National Identity Database (NIDB).

Dabo commended the progress made on the NIMS project promising to collaborate with NIMC “because the NIMS will make all our jobs easier.”

According to him, “we will give you all the support you need to ensure that you gather enough data as soon as possible to populate the database.”

NIMC visited the military pension board seeking possible means of collaborating with the organisation on its ongoing verification exercise for all military pensioners across Nigeria.

According to the NIMC Chief Executive, the collaboration would mandate that all pensioners obtain their National Identification Number, (NIN) before they can complete the MPB verification exercise.

“This will allow the MPB make direct payment to its pensioners through the payment applet on the National e-ID Card while ensuring that the recipients are the true payees with the NIMC verification platform; all in compliance of the recent presidential directive on harmonization of all databases,” Onyemenam adds.