Mr Aliyu Aziz, Director-General of the National Identity Management
Commission (NIMC), says 33 million Nigerians have enrolled for the
National Identification Number (NIN)
.
Aziz said on Monday that the commission had stepped up its
strategy to fast-track the enrolment of more citizens and provide them
with legal Identification.
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| National Identity Card |
”NIMC has stepped up its operations, which has seen the enrolment
figure with the unique National Identification Number (NIN) now at over
33 million, astronomically up from just seven million three years ago,”
he said.
The Director-General said that the Federal Executive Council (FEC)
had on Sept. 12, 2018 approved the immediate commencement of the
implementation of a strategic roadmap for Digital Identity Ecosystem in
Nigeria.
Aziz said that the step would further boost enrolment across the
country, moreso as government had set the enforcement of the mandatory
use of the NIN for Jan 1, 2019.
He said that the Digital Identity Ecosystem was a framework that
leveraged on the existing capabilities and infrastructure of distinct
government agencies and private sector organisations.
The Director-General said that the framework was to carry out
enrolment of Nigerians and legal residents into the National Identity
Database (NIDB).
Aziz said that the framework was to ensure issuance of digital
identity, known as the NIN, to give Nigeria a credible and robust
identity management system.
He said that the provision of digital identity to everyone in the
country to be able to prove ‘who is who’ was critical to accessing
services physically or electronically.
According to him, one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
by the United Nations demands that nations provide legal identity for
all including birth registration by the year 2030.
”From the above, it is very clear that identification plays an
important role in enabling the achievement of other SDG targets, such as
social protection, rights to economic resources, land and property, as
well as universal health coverage,” he said.
