No fewer than 42 million Nigerians have already obtained the National Identification Number (NIN), the Director-General of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Aliyu Aziz has said.
Aziz who disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday while marking the 2020 National Identity Day said getting the NIN would help to foster economic digitization.
He urged Nigerians to prioritize getting the NIN rather than clamouring for the physical identity card as identification in the 21st century has to be digital, hence it is the number that is most important.
Aziz said: “In the United States, it’s the Social Security Number, not a national identity card. It’s the number that must be emphasized.
“We are working with various agencies of government to synergize this digital identification. The Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Communications Commission, and many others are agencies we are working with to synergize the digital identification process.
“Leveraging a digital identification system for continuous data and reliable statistics under the new world order is crucial for our survival and growth as a nation in this era of digital inclusion and digital economy”.
He disclosed that the Agency will in the next three months concentrate on registering Internally Displaced Persons, (IDPs) to enable them to get easy access to social services.
The NIMC boss said it is through the NIN that organizations that want to distribute palliatives to IDPs can easily reach them directly without any intermediary.
“The major challenge is our large population for example last year we registered 7 million Nigerians. If we were in a country like Israel, we would have been done because that’s the population of the whole of Israel. That is why we have come out with a sustainable ecosystem to make sure that all the agencies and sectors we are partnering with should be able to issue the NIN,” Aziz added.
