The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has been moved to the Ministry of Interior.
The decision was reached by the Federal Government as part of efforts to resolve issues around passport processing in the country.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo on assumption of office promised to work towards having the NIMC in the ministry for proper coordination of identity data of Nigerians.
The process of National ID Card is now being accelerated following the directive of President Tinubu to remove all impediments and bottlenecks from obtaining passports.
The National Identity Number (NIN), domiciled in NIMC, is one of the major conditions for obtaining International Passports.
Before the redeployment, NIMC was supervised by the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy.
A source who spoke on condition of anonymity with Daily Trust revealed that a meeting was held on Wednesday at the ministry with staff of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
He said the meeting was to harmonise the activities of the two government organisations.
The source at the ministry said, “The process is ongoing and should be finalised by Friday because there is another meeting scheduled for Friday.”
Under the previous administration, the NIMC in conjunction with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) collaborated for the linkage of NIN with the Subscribers Identity Modules SIM, to fight incidences of kidnapping banditry, and terrorism. Over 100 million Nigerians linked their NIN with SIM within three years.
