The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has said Nigerians
will begin to pay for the issuance of national identity card from 2022.
Aliyu Aziz, NIMC director-general, made this known at the reform
seminar on National Digital Identity Ecosystem Strategic Road Map for
enrollment of Nigerians and legal residents into National Identity
Database (NIDB) in Abuja on Thursday.
“The National e-ID Card can only be issued to Nigerians registered
into the national identity system and legal residents who have attained
the age of 16 years and above but the national identification number
(NIN) is assignable to Nigerians only”.“As a government, we recognise the huge importance of moving towards a
digital government, therefore, we must embrace and harness the
potentials inherent in digital identity to build and develop our
country.“Nations all over the world and in particular, developed countries
have utilised identity as a foundation to transforming governance and
enhancing service delivery in the areas of healthcare, agriculture,
voting, transportation, financial inclusion, access to basic service and
welfare programmes.”
Aziz assured Nigerians that no one would be denied government
services on account of not having the national identity number (NIN). He
said the NIN can be retrieved on all mobile networks using *346# and
pressing one if the phone number enrolled for NIN registration is used.
He said the other option would be to dial *346#, press two and input
some registered details. “Note that using this service attracts a N20
fee only deducted from your phone credit balance,” the NIMC boss said.
According to him, the e-ID card will integrate existing identity
database into government institutions and enable everyone to also
receive a multipurpose ID card.
