7 million Nigerians registered on identity database

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has announced that it has enrolled 7 million Nigerians on its database out of 13 million initially billed for the first phase of the project.

Mr. Chris Onyemenam, director-general of the commission, revealed this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, adding that the commission was urging Nigerians to utilize the opportunity and register for identification cards.

According to Onyemenam, the Federal Government considers this necessary to centralize the process of ascertaining the identity of every Nigerian.

“Right now in the database, we have about seven million Nigerians, which is quite poor because there have been a deliberate effort by NIMC, through third parties, to do better than this record. These third parties have not been able to deliver in four years; as such, by February this year, those contracts were terminated.”

READ: NIMC DG says the National Identity Management System is now functional

“So, if we did not do what we had done and were waiting for them, NIMC would have nothing in the database. It is from the harmonisation that we hope if concluded soon, NIMC will get the volume of data to make up for the gap that had been created by these concessioners,’’ Onyemenam said.