The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has explained that Nigerians will have to pay for the new multipurpose national identity card to ensure that it is produced only for those who need it.

The Head of Card Management Services, NIMC, Dr. Peter Iwegbu, stated this on Thursday during a media workshop organized by the Commission in Lagos.

Iwegbu said the decision was made by the Engineer. The Bisoye Coker-Odusote-led NIMC aims to avoid repeating the mistake of past efforts to issue free physical cards to Nigerians, which many Nigerians have not collected.

According to him, more than two million cards were produced during the previous attempt to issue free national identity cards by the NIMC, but many of them have not been collected so far.

“Before we stopped because of funding, we were producing over two million cards but a lot of them are still in our offices, people couldn’t collect them because they didn’t need them,” he said. he declared.

Limited government revenues

Apart from the issue of collection, Iwegbu explained that the government could also not finance the production of ID cards this time due to its limited revenue.

“We tried to review the whole project to find out what the problem was. First, the government does not have the money to produce this card and distribute it for free.

“Secondly, people need to need the card so that when we produce it, they will pick it up,” he explained.

Corroborating Iwegbu, the IT Director of NIMC, Engr. Lanre Yusuf said that although the idea of ​​a free national identity card, as conceived at the time by the National Assembly, was good, it did not yield good results because many people abandoned these cards.

“What we are currently working on is a post-paid ID card; you just need the card before initiating the card application.

“You make a payment, choose where you want to collect the card and you go to collect it.

“You can’t go through all this and pay and ignore your card,” Yusuf said.

Provisions for less privileged Nigerians

Iwegbu however noted that the government has different programs to make the card available to less privileged Nigerians who may not be able to pay for the card but need it to access government support.

• While noting that the multipurpose cards would be launched in a few weeks with the sample test cards having been received this week, Iwegbu said the NIMC had also decentralized the application and collection from banks to make it easier for Nigerians.
• He noted that NIMC is working with banks across the country, which will allow people to walk into any bank nearest to them and apply for the card.

History

NIMC announced its plans in April this year launch a multipurpose national identity card which can be used for identity verification, payments and even government services.

• The card, powered by AfriGO, was launched in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
• Information released by the NIMC reveals that the card will be activated for all government interventions and services across several ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
• Among other capabilities and features, it will also be eNaira enabled in compliance with EMV operational and security standards.

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