The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NIMC

  • 100m Nigerians to be registered in 30 days, says NIMC boss

    100m Nigerians to be registered in 30 days, says NIMC boss

    The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) will register 100 million Nigerians within the first 30 days of the flag-off of the exercise, its Director- General, Dr. Chris Onyemenam, has said.

    Speaking in Abuja after a media tour of the company’s facilities, and its Data Recovery Centre in Minna, Niger State, Onyemenam, lamented the dearth of connectivity, power, geographical reach and front end funding of the porgramme.

    He said, in the past, Nigeria had focused too much interest on the issuance of identity cards, noting, however, that the mandate of NIMC is not to issue ID cards, but to issue National Identity Numbers (NIN) to duly registered persons in the country.

    He explained that NIN is a non-intelligent set of uniquely assigned numbers to individuals upon successful enrolment, saying it consists of the recording of an individual’s demographic data, capturing of the 10 fingerprints, head-to-shoulder facial picture and digital signature, which are all used to cross-check existing data in the National Identity Database to confirm there is no previous entry of the same data.

  • Commission begins civic registration

    Commission begins civic registration

    Poised to register Nigerian nationals and legal residents in the country, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has opened 25 points at Alausa Secretariat, Lagos, to kick-start the registration, which selling point is the inimitable National Identification Number (NIN).

    The commission’s Lagos State Coordinator, Mr J.A. Durojaiyem who captured the scheme’s slogan, Register Once, be Identified for Life, said government was more concerned about identity management.

    “This time around, government is more concerned about identity management. When you get registered, you will be given a pin number immediately. That is your National Identification Number (NIN) which is not transferable. The card will come later. The number and other identities pertaining to you will be fed into a data base. As soon as you attain 16 years, you are eligible to register.”

    According to him, with the NIN, information about an individual can be accessed anytime it is required. He explained that even in death, the number would not be transferred to another person. He urged Nigerians to avail themselves of the exercise and enjoy the accruable benefits.

    However, the Commission is not oblivious of the seeming challenge of public apathy to the exercise. It would be recalled that many Nigerians were shut out of the previous exercise by no choice of theirs. It is also not an understatement that many eligible Nigerians who failed to obtain the card are yet to overcome the denial. Inasmuch as the current exercise has guarded against such slips, the Commission is not resting on its oars.

    Recently, NIMC campaign team stormed Iyana Ejigbo in Ejigbo Local Government Area of Lagos State to sensitise the residents, comprising traders, artisans, commercial bus drivers, okada riders and others about the scheme.

    Expectedly, officials of the commission were given a rousing welcome despite arriving the venue at the peak of trading. With the Iyaloja, (Market leader), Chief (Mrs) Medinat Samsudeen and the Vice Chairman, NURTW, Ejigbo-Isolo chapter, Mr Hakeem Aregbe as  mobilisers,  the market women and their male counterparts left their stalls to receive the ‘good news’. They gave varying accounts of their experiences during the previous exercise. For instance, Mrs Janet Toriola, a food seller, recalled the pains she went through in her effort to get the national ID card. ‘I left Ejigbo and went as far as Ahmadiya, when I learnt that people were getting registered there. At the end of the day, I didn’t get the card.” Toriola’s plight was not different from that of the Head of the Provisions unit of the market, Mr. Chike Nwokedi, who also recounted instances when the old national identity card would have come in handy when asked to produce a means of identification. Many times, he had been left stranded because of that.

    To allay their fears, NIMC State Coordinator assured them that nobody would be shut out of the ongoing registration since the National Identity Management System (NIMS) is not going to be a one-off thing unlike the previous one. “It is not going to be an ad hoc thing any longer where you would give deadline for registration. Every day, people turn 16 which is the benchmark age…That is why our slogan is ‘register once and be identified for life.’ We also have a plan to go to the hinterlands very soon,” he said.

    Present at the awareness campaign were the representative of the Elejigbo of Ejigbo, Chief Adekunle Adenuga, a delegation of the okada riders union, market associations among others.

  • NIMC, banks disagree over biometric data

    NIMC, banks disagree over biometric data

    THE National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is not happy with banks’ decision to continue to provide their biometric data base.

    The decision would cause waste of funds, duplication of efforts and financial exclusion, NIMC said.

    It said banks would increase their cost of operations, if they insisted on providing the database themselves.

    NIMC spoke against the backdrop of arrangement for getting the biometric data of all Nigerians.

    It’s Chief Executive Officer, Chris Onyemenan, said it would amount to waste of funds for banks to embark on the exercise since the Federal Government has budgeted money for it.

    He said: “Already, banks have a lot of costs on their neck. So, if they go ahead with decisions to provide biometric database for their operations, the development would stretch their cost of operations further. This amounts to a waste of funds because the Federal Government had committed huge amount of money for the production of biometric data of Nigerians vis-a-vis the management of the NIMC.”

    Besides, it would amount to duplication of efforts since NIMC is charged with the responsibility of integrating the databases of the private and public sectors, asking: Why should banks provide their own biometric database since the government has already made arrangement for one?

    He added: “If banks should go ahead and have the biometric database of all their customers with them, it will lead to financial exclusion. This implies that non-account holders are going to be excluded from data capturing nets.”

    Onyemenan said banks do not have a strong database in place, hence their decision to direct customers to bring all sorts of documents to ascertain their identities and further achieve the objectives behind the introduction of Know Your Customer(KYC) initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    He said banking core functions include keeping accounts of their customers, and ensuring judicious use of depositors’ funds, arguing that banks need to link up with a centralised and biometric database system to achieve growth.

    However, banks have taken a different position by supporting the idea of having their own biometric database.

    Sources close to the Committee of Chief Compliance Officers of Nigeria said the use of a separate biometric data capturing is non-negotiable as banks are to achieve their objectives of reducing frauds in the industry. According to a member of the association, who spoke on condition of anonymity, banks’ decision on the matter is line with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) goals of tightening loopholes that could lead to fraud in the industry.

    He said the position of the banks was reinforced by the need to prevent untoward development in the area of transactions management.

    “No bank is ready to leave anything to chance, having gone through the CBN’s stress test in 2009. Now, banks are tightening all loopholes as relate to cash and credit management. To achieve this, there must a biometric data capturing system in place in the banks,” the sources added.

  • Sacked NIMC workers bemoan fate

    Sacked NIMC workers bemoan fate

    About 4000 workers of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) sacked by the Director-General, Chris Onyemena, have threatened to hand over the DG to God, if his decision is not rescinded even as some have been recalled and directed to attend a workshop in Asaba Delta state.

    Some of the recalled workers, who went for the workshop at Hotel Benieza Asaba, The Nation gathered, were those who have higher degrees. They were tutored on registration of National Identity card and management of data base as anchored by the Deputy Director in charge of training, Mrs. Florence Igboke.

    One of the victims who did not want to be named said, ‘’We are not against his sack but let him follow the due process of sack. Some of us have worked for 15 years, 20 years and 29 years

    Last year, the commission said it had discovered 4,000 “ghost workers” in its fold and was planning to reduce its personnel cost which rose from N3.3 billion in 2011 to N4.2billion in 2012.

    The Labour Adviser to the Director-General of the commission, Ayo Olorunfemi, said the organisation was one of the few offices in the country with majority of its workforce in the junior cadre.

    The affected staff members were inherited by NIMC from the defunct Department of National Civic Registration (DNCR), under the former Ministry of Internal Affairs, now Ministry of Interior, the commission said.