Abisoye Coker-Odusote, the Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), revealed in Abuja on Wednesday that at least 120 million Nigerians had already been added to the National Identity Number (NIN) database.
During a press briefing, Mrs. Coker-Odusote stated that the NIN enrolment process is still going on in both urban and rural areas, and there is a strong push to increase the number of participants before the year is out.
“We have enrolled many Nigerians and are still counting. We are definitely going to continue until we capture more Nigerians before year-end,” she said.
Through a program called “Frontier Partners,” the NIMC’s collaboration with the World Bank on the Nigeria Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative has increased private sector participation, the agency’s head claims. Through this program, private actors can collaborate with NIMC representatives to collect data nationwide.
She added that in order to facilitate the registration procedure, the commission had furnished state and local government offices with modern facilities and qualified staff.
“We have well-trained NIMC staff ready to assist applicants in modifying or updating their information. The pricing framework was also reviewed, with some prices adjusted downward, others upward, and a few removed entirely,” she added.
According to Mrs. Coker-Odusote, the commission implemented a self-service modification platform to increase efficiency, allowing Nigerians to use biometric authentication to amend their data online. This is meant to make moving or updating records relating to a job less stressful.
“In today’s Nigeria, people often move between states. With the online Self-Assist Platform, they no longer need to queue at centres.
While following cybersecurity and data protection procedures, they can log in, authenticate using their biometrics, and update their records,” she said.
The NIMC NIN Authentication app, which connects to the commission’s backend systems and provides further protection for personal information, was also praised by the DG.
She disclosed that in order to receive government services, candidates for the recently implemented student loan program would need to be registered in the NIN database.
She claimed that this aids in the eradication of identity fraud and encourages financial inclusion.
“All a student needs to do is input their name on the loan portal, and a verified identity pops up from a single, secure database. This simplifies the process and ensures transparency,” she said.
Mrs. Coker-Odusote went on to say that the commission had implemented continuous improvements and collaborated with cybersecurity specialists to cut corruption and extortion in the enrolment system by as much as 40%.
She gave the assurance that in order to uphold service delivery standards across the country, NIMC employees were undergoing ongoing training and retraining.
