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Aziz: National Identity Number, a Crucial Tool for Citizens, Government

Director-general of the National Identity Management Commission, Aliyu Abubakar Aziz, speaks on the importance of the national identity number and why all Nigerians should enrol in the scheme, in this interview. Emma Okonji provides the excerpts: Why is NIMC pushing the National Identification Number (NIN) now more than the national ID card itself? The focus of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) for the next three to five years is on the National Identification Number and not on the National e-ID Card. We want to make the NIN understandable, acceptable, applicable and appreciated by Nigerians, as an important and intrinsic aspect of their entire life, rather than a physical card, which can be discarded while the number is for life. Before now, we were focused on the card but after the country went into recession, we decided to emulate other developed countries like the United States, which issues the Social Security Number; the United Kingdom, with the National Insurance Number; and India where they recently enrolled about 1.4 billion people and issued them the Aadhaar. In all these cases, the emphasis – or perhaps I should say the only thing in focus, is the number. However, this does not mean that we won’t issue the cards, because it is there in our Act (NIMC Act, 2007), that we should issue a general multipurpose card to all registered Nigerians. Therefore, we recently gazetted some regulations that will ensure participation of private partners in the card personalisation services in order to handle the printing of the outstanding cards, but funding is a challenge. Also, the intention of the Commission is to develop the identity ecosystem with all data-collecting government agencies and licenced private agencies, in order to capture additional 50 million records by the end of 2018. What advantages does having the NIN confer on a citizen? The NIN bequeaths citizens with a lot of privileges and benefits. Like most modern economies where the national identity number is a national token that gives citizens access to government social interventions, the NIN also grants citizens certain rights as regards financial access, credit facilities, among others. Mind you, in the case of the US, UK and India that i mentioned earlier, like other advanced economies, a citizen can’t access any social services such as health, insurance and so on, without the requisite social security number. The number is indispensable. So, here in Nigeria, the NIN facilitates interactions between citizens, the government and private sector institutions thereby promoting socio-economic and political development. Since citizens enjoy a “one-person-one-identity,” for life, the NIN therefore enhances citizens’ participation in the political process, enables citizens to exercise their rights, facilitates management of subsidies and safety net payments, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) management and facilitates service delivery in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). It also enhances the work of law enforcement agencies like public safety, policing, national security and border protection, and eliminates ghost and multiple identities. It also enhances the ability of citizens to assert their identity, have access to credit from financial institutions, protects citizens from identity theft – an antidote to identity theft driven frauds, which expands […]