Identity Day: We’ll leverage on traditional institutions to boost grassroot enrollment —NIMC

…As NIN enrollment hits 89m

By Ogaga Ariemu

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), has expressed readiness to leverage on traditional institutions to boost grassroot enrollment.

This is coming as the Commission announced 89 million National Identity Number (NIN) enrollment peak.

Director General/CEO NIMC, Engr Aliyu Aziz, disclosed this at a press briefing with Journalists in commemoration of this year’s Identity Day slated to hold on Friday, 16th September.

He said during this year’s event, the Commission has finalised plans to partner traditional rulers, other stakeholders required to scaleup National Identity enrollment across nooks and crannies of Nigeria.

He added that the focus of the fourth Identity Day celebration is to drum up awareness, support from rural dwellers.

Aziz assured that NIMC will put in place adequate system to make National Identity Number (NIN) easy for intended enrollees.

He also urged prospective enrollees and enrollees to always input correct data during registration to cut additional cost.

The DG further said the Commission has developed multiple ways to tackle infrastructural challenge.

On the aspect of security, he said, “In most of the areas, Nigeria Military has assured us of safety. They have urged us to go ahead with the registration anywhere in Nigeria.

“This year’s event we are partnering with traditional to raise awareness, as of today we have enrolled about 89 million enrolees into National Identity Database. If you recall when I became Director General, we only have 7million enrolees, so you can see that will have recorded additional 82 million. We have growing the database, in every month we do have 2-3 million enrollees. Still this 89 million enrollees are mainstream people, they are people in the market, villages, nooks and crannies that have not been enrolled. This is the reason we want to partner traditional institutions throughout the year to boost enrollment in the grassroots.

“Identity is a tool for empowerment and greater use of digital identity will bring about much needed development.

“The focus is to leverage on traditional leaders and to drum up awarenesss to the grassroots,  because NIN is for everyone. Most mainstream people have been captured, we are now refocusing on our attention to villages, rual communities,” he said.

The Director, Legal Regulatory and Compliance Services, Barr. Hadiza Dagabana, other management staff of NIMC and representatives of Identification for Development (ID4D) were present at the briefing.