NIMC enrolment hits 120 million as agency plans registration of all Nigerians
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) on Wednesday announced that before the end of this year, all Nigerians would have been enrolled and captured in its National Identity Numbers (NIN) database.
The Commission said as at Tuesday this week, the total number of NIN enrolment in its database has hit 120, 040,000.
The Director General and Chief Executive Officer of NIMC, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, attributed the surge in enrolment to the upgrading of old equipment and the purchase of over 1,000 gadgets being deployed in all the 774 local government councils of the country.
Engr Coker-Odusote said, “Our systems have moved from 100 million capacity to about 250 million due to the upgrade and launch of various digital platforms to support our services in line with international standards and best practices.
“That is why I can assure you that before the end of this year, NIMC will have enrolled all Nigerians and residents. We have moved from local government areas to wards and communities to ensure that we have seamless enrolment.”
She praised President Bola Tinubu for the ongoing reforms across all sectors of the economy, saying that the political will demonstrated by the President was the reason for the far-reaching achievements recorded by NIMC in less than 2 years of her appointment.
Engr Coker-Odusote who addressed journalists at the headquarters of NIMC in Abuja, said NIMC has within the past 18 months embarked on the training and reorientation of its workers to ensure efficient and effective service delivery in all aspects of their operations.
She said due to partnership and collaborations covering about 120 Ministries, Departments and Agencies of (MDAs) government, the country’s National Social Register has been updated and 2.3million Nigerians have been verified and revalidated.
Coker-Odusote said the NIMC is currently partnering with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), SMEDAN, NHIS, CBN, NCC, NPC, Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Education, JAMB and NELFUND, and the office of the National Security Adviser ONSA, amongst others, for Identity verification, authentication and integration for strategic national development.
According to Engr Coker-Odusote, lots of cleanups have been recorded regarding the authentication of citizens’ identities in strategic agencies of government, leading to the arrest of some individuals for fraudulent activities and identity theft.
She also said that recent developments in the just concluded Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations showed that NIMC as one of the back-end service providers (NIN verification and authentication) ensured that impersonation of candidates were eliminated.
She said the mass failure of students might have been because some people who were in the business of writing JAMB for some candidates could not do so this year.
The NIMC boss further said, “Within the past 18 months, we have been able to cover lots of ground. Besides the ongoing integration of the Civil Service and Agencies under the Ministries, we have also integrated the private sector, especially banks and Telcos.
“This development has helped to eliminate fake news sites and fake sites for NIN registration by some sharks. NIN is now tied to the school feeding programme, student loans programme, and disbursement of government social welfare packages.
“The government has been able to cut waste and eliminate identity fraud and corruption within the system. What we are advocating is that citizens should take responsibility for the safety and protection of their data. “
Coker-Odusote also explained the reasons behind the recent review of the prices for the services of NIMC, saying that the law mandated the agency to undertake a review every two years, but NIMC had not been able to do so for the past 10 years.
