The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has begun the establishment of enrolment centres in local government councils for the issuance of the National Identification Number (NIN) in the 774 Councils across the country.
The deployment according to Anthony Okwudiafor, director, corporate communication of NIMC, will be in three phases with the first phase covering 220 council areas across the Federation.
In a telephone interview, Okwudiafor confirmed that the NIMC had conducted a survey of the state of readiness of the office spaces provided by the council areas to enable the Commission determine how to effectively deploy the enrolment equipment for enrolment services to commence immediately.
He noted that most locations are either inadequate or fell below the minimum standard the Commission has set for the Enrolment Centres. This accounts for the reason why the deployment will be in phases to allow for time to get the council chairmen to provide assistance or for the Commission to source funds to do the needful.
The first phase covers 220 councils which can be quickly ungraded for enrolment to commerce. According to Okwudiafor, the Commission embarked on the exercise to ensure that every citizen, no matter where he or she resides is given the opportunity to enrol. NIMC is spreading to the grassroots to identify every Nigerian citizen and capture his/her personal information into the National Identity Database.
“Already pilot centres for the effective grassroots registration exercise have commenced operations in FCT Councils, namely Gwagwalada, Kuje, AMAC and Bwari – all of which now have their Enrolment Centres and activities already commenced,” Okwudiafor said.
It will be recalled that recently, the NIMC in collaboration with the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) held consultative fora in the geopolitical zones to sensitise council chairmen on the need for massive support for the enrolment exercise in their local government areas.
The ALGON has been urged to continue to support, partner and cooperate with NIMC in its mandate to establish Enrolment Centres in the remaining local government councils in the country.
Analysts believe that a refreshing perspective has been brought to bear on the registration exercise with the concept of permanent registration centres in local government councils.
This approach, if sustained will enable identity authentication at the local levels, a development that will support various government programmes including proper collection of revenues both at the federal, state and local government levels amongst other things.
By: Ben Uzor Jr
