*Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission, at a forum for Desk Officers of the Nigeria Digital Identification Project, in Abuja, explains how the increasing National Identity Number enrollments will facilitate and expand Nigerian consumers’ access to public services

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has said its national database has hit over 93.5 million National Identity Number (NIN) enrollments.

Engr. Aliyu A. Aziz, Director-General of NIMC, who disclosed this development Tuesday, at a one-day meeting the Identify for Development (ID4D) organised in Abuja, FCT.

The programme was organised for Desk Officers of the Nigeria Digital Identification Project’s ecosystem implementing partners, agency report said.

Engr. Aziz, represented at the forum by Ibrahim Abdullahi, Director of Public Services at NIMC, said the new approaches had greatly impacted on the huge increase on the national database to the current 93.5 million.

Aziz also said that the unified ID system approach as well as the ecosystem model has had a tremendous positive impact on the enrollment figure.

He noted: “Currently, the National Identity Database has over 90 million (93.5m) records, which is a sharp contrast from just seven million when I assumed office in 2015.

“The primary aim of the strategic roadmap for digital identification in Nigeria, is to simplify the approach to identification through simple data collection process and a centralised unique identification system for Nigeria and legal residents.

“This is a sharp contrast to the fragmented multi-issuing ID agencies of the past.”

There is the need to put in place a deliberate and long term plans to chart new pathways that would priotise national projects, stated he.

The NIMC Director-General said: “There is also the need to build resilience, explore emerging trends and capitialise on opportunities inherent in a unified ID system in order to reposition our country economically, as well as productively.”

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Musa Idole, National Coordinator of ID4D, said the meeting was to evolve a single point of contact with each of the ecosystem implementing partners.

Idole said this would ensure that partners do not miss out on any important step in the project implementation.

According to him, the Nigeria Digital ID4D is a project jointly funded by the World Bank, European Investment Bank and the French Development Agency.

He stated: “The Project Development Objective is to increase the number of persons with a National Identity Number (NIN), issued by a robust and inclusive foundational Identity system, that facilitates their access to services.

“By design, the project will promote transparency and accountability, participation, grievance redress and regular monitoring to improve operational performance and mitigation of identified social risks.”

The National Coordinator of ID4D further said: “The project will establish a national consultation mechanism, to sustain dialogue with stakeholders and marginalised groups to receive feedback that would improve project implementation.

“We are taking deliberate steps to ensure that the challenge of inter-agency rivalry is a thing of the past.

“It is in the overriding interest of Nigeria that institutions of government collaborate.

“We, therefore, call for synergy among all public institutions in Nigeria, particularly, those involved in the country’s ID ecosystem.

“We seek your collaboration and active participation in the project implementation.”

Mr. Olufemi Fabunmi, Director of Database, said “NIMC will increase its server capacity to 250million from 100 million after a service upgrade,” report stated.