Enrolment Of Minors: NIMC To Collaborate With Schools, 30m Identities Harmonised

The National Identity Management Commission
says it will collaborate with basic schools across
the country to create awareness on the need to
enrol minors on its National Identity Number
scheme.
Loveday Ogbonna, Head of Corporate Affairs,
NIMC, made this known in an interview with the
News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja.
NAN recalls that registration of minors had
already commenced since January, 2017, while
the commission also noted that it had
harmonised 30 million identities.
The head of Corporate Affairs of the Commission
said that the exercise would be restricted to
children whose parents had national
identification numbers.
According to him, the process will have children
showcasing their Parents’ NIN as means of valid
identification.
Ogbonna said: “The minors applicants must also
have their birth certificate, School admission
letter or any other relevant school document like
National Health Insurance Scheme identity Card.
“The applicant’s parent or guardian shall provide
his or her initial registration number, which is
NIN slip or NIN for verification.
“Please note that the parent or guardian’s NIN
must be correctly captured to avoid delay in NIN
issuance to the applicant.
“An enrolment form is issued to be filled with the
applicant’s required details.
“After successfully completing the enrolment
form, the applicant’s demographic data is
captured.”
He added that the process would encourage
parents who are not yet enrolled into the
database to register, in order for their kids not to
be left out.
Ogbonna, however, advised that parents who
have not enrolled can still do so by obtaining
numbers for their children.
According to him, the commission is making
tremendous effort in making sure every Nigerian
understands the benefits and importance of the
NIN to the citizenry.
He said: “In our efforts to ease the hurdles of
distance, the commission has established more
centres in the Federal Capital Territory and
across the country.
“The public must understand that the system
was in place and it is an important database that
had been established for all Nigerians.
“The National ID card as a legal identity, a
promising benefits that would provide greater
access to services, and opportunities for both
young and old in Nigeria.
“Greater protection of human rights and security
of individuals.
“A more legitimate and equitable distribution of
public resource, friendliness, updating, procedure,
protection and well equipped infrastructure is
required to attain the deserved outcome from the
National ID.”
The head of Corporate Affairs told NAN that the
card is not just an identification card; however, it
provides basic population counts for the
purposes of policy, planning and monitoring.
He added that the card system also provides
privacy and identity protection of individual
citizens in the country.
According to him, the system tells us exactly
what kind of population we have and it will
contribute to decision making on how we can
plan forward.
Ogbonna said: “It tells us exactly how many
people are in various locations for development
purposes.
“This system has interesting components that
can be able to give us very good information to
plan and to integrate into policies.”
He said that for any minor to be enrolled, he or
she must be accompanied by his or her parent or
guardian who must have obtained his or her NIN.
Meanwhile, Director-General of the National
Identity Management Commissio, Aziz Aliyu, has
said that NIMC had harmonised close to 30
million identities of Nigerians.
According to him, the new Eco-System approach
agreed by all other agencies was to collaborate
with NIMC to move the numbers to cover the
whole population as soon as possible.
The D-G noted that there were initial challenges
in the exercise but they were in the process of
being resolved once the agencies had agreed to
work in a collaborative manner.
Aliyu hinted that the agency had a three year
timeline to cover the entire Nigerian population.
He said that the focus was to do everything in a
digital manner focusing on number and not the
possession of physical cards.
The D-G said the same was done in some
countries like India, which had done about 1.4
billion identities where the country focused on
number.
Aliyu said: “Our focus for the next three years is
just going to be on the number to give digital
identification.’’
Also speaking, Lanre Osinbana, Presidential aide
on Logistics and ICT, added that the
harmonization process had advanced much.
He said it had been a wonderful experience,
difficult but very fruitful, adding that the purpose
of the exercise was to develop a digital
economy.
Osinbana said: “To drive identity is a crucial
aspect of this and in terms of innovations
towards providing technologies and opportunities
to be able to access data.
“We live in a much data environment now; so
this is very crucial.’’
According to him, identity is a critical aspect in
the government’s programme on social safety net
as well as on financial inclusion.
He said: “This is very key for us to make sure
that we can capture every single Nigeria, have
data for them, and the minimum information
about them.
“The purpose of this is vast, it cuts across all the
identity agencies in the country both functional
and foundational.’’
He said it was crucial the country got it right by
issuing every Nigerian a digital number, adding
that the three year timeline was realizable as it
would lay solid foundation for other development
programmes.