NIMC, ALTON DISCUSS JANUARY 2019 NIN DEADLINE
NIMC,
ALTON DISCUSS JANUARY 2019 NIN DEADLINE
Ahead of the January
1, 2019 deadline given by the Federal Government for the mandatory use of the
National Identification Number (NIN), Director-General of the National Identity
Management Commission (NIMC), Engr. Aliyu Aziz has held wide ranging consultations
with the leadership of mobile network operators in the country under the aegis
of Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) led by its
Chairman, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo.
Engr. Aliyu Aziz said
he considered the meeting with ALTON to be central in the implementation of the
recently launched Digital Identity Ecosystem spearheaded by NIMC given the
Association’s members’ customers – the mobile subscribers – who currently run into
nearly 150 million.
ALTON is the umbrella
body of all mobile operators in Nigeria, such as MTN Nigeria, Glo Mobile,
Airtel, 9mobile and Ntel. As of September 2018, the telecom regulator, the
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), stated that there were 143 million
mobile phone subscriptions or active connected lines in Nigeria.
Against this
background, Engr. Aziz explained: “The Digital Identity Ecosystem is a
sustainable scheme where any of the data collecting Government agencies or
licensed private agency can enrol and capture data from citizens and legal
residents and send to the NIMC backend.”
Speaking further on
the meeting with ALTON, he said the MNOs in Nigeria “are already undertaking
data capture subscribers’ information including biometrics for any SIM to be
active. This information is sent to a central database managed by NCC.
“The NCC being a
stakeholder in the identity ecosystem is required by the NIMC Act and
Regulation, to ensure the use of the NIN for access to services including SIM
utilisation. Of course, NCC is a key partner in the Identity Harmonisation
process, and was one of the earliest government agencies to handover to NIMC
data available to it from SM registration for warehousing by NIMC in the
National Identity Database,” Engr. Aziz affirmed.
Therefore, the
meeting with ALTON was not only much desired and important; it was a natural
way to also prepare the mobile operators, who are critical stakeholders,
towards the January 1, 2019 deadline for the mandatory use of the NIN, Engr.
Aziz stated.
The NIMC D-G also
used the opportunity to explain the effect and implication of the ‘mandatory
use of NIN’ in the Federal Government’s directive.
“Some people have the
wrong impression that by January 1, 2019, by mandatory use of the NIN means
everyone in Nigeria must have the NIN. This is not correct. Rather, what it
means is that to access any services as specified under Section 27 (1) of the
NIMC Act 2007, a person must have the NIN; where one does not have it, any
government agency or private sector operator to be licensed by NIMC offering
such services that fall under the mandatory use of the NIN, must immediately
enrol the person and generate the NIN under the Digital Identity Ecosystem I
explained earlier,” he stated.
Section 27 – (1) of
the NIMC Act 2007 states: “As from the date specified in that regard in
regulation made by the Commission, the National Identity Number issued to a
registered individual must be presented for the following transactions, that
is:
1. a) application for, and issuance of a
passport
2. b) opening of individual and/or
personal bank accounts
3. c) purchase of insurance policies
4. d) subject to the provisions of the
Land Use Act, the purchase, transfer and registration of land by any individual
or any transaction connected therewith
5. e) such transactions pertaining to
individuals as may be prescribed and regulated by the Pension Reform Act, 2004
6. f) such transactions specified under
the Contributory Health Insurance Scheme
7. g) such transactions that have social
security implications
8. h) all consumer credit transactions
9. i) Registration of voters
10.
j)
Payment of taxes;
And, Section 27 (2)
of the Act states: “Any authority or organisation to which a person applies to
carry out any transaction listed under sub section (1) of this section shall
request such person to produce his Multipurpose Identity Card or National
Identification Number.”
ALTON Chairman, Engr.
Adebayo had earlier chronicled the fears of the Association and its members
against the backdrop of inadequate enrolment centres across the country
pursuant to the issuance of NIN.
However, he pointed
out the importance of the national identity system when he stated: “A credible
national identity database enables effective planning, increases financial
inclusion by easing access to financial services, enhances the electoral
process and helps improve national security.”
He pointed out
however, that “the absence of a harmonised, credible and pervasive national
identity system in Nigeria has resulted in a plethora of identity databases
such as the drivers register maintained by the Federal Road Safety Commission
(FRSC), the voters register (managed by INEC), and the SIM by NCC.”
Stressing ALTON’s
concerns, Engr. Adebayo requested concession for its members, saying: “ALTON
thus recommends that telecommunications being a social overhead capital that
enables every other economic activity in Nigeria, be granted a concessionary
waiver of the implementation of the mandatory use of NIN until agreed NIN and
enrolment centre availability milestones are reached.”
But Engr. Aziz
explained that with the Ecosystem approach, the fields of enrolment now
encompass just NIMC alone.
“All the implementing
partners in the Ecosystem, that is all data collecting agencies of government
as well as private sector operators to be registered, will undertake enrolment
and send the information to NIMC backend for generation of NIN as well as keeping
of the data in the national database by NIMC,” he clarified.
Engr. Aziz listed
some of the Federal Government agencies under the identity harmonisation
implementation scheme to include the National Population Commission, the NCC,
the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Nigeria Police Force, the Federal Inland
Revenue Service, Galaxy Backbone, Central Bank of Nigeria, Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, Corporate Affairs Commission, Joint Admissions
& Matriculations Board, National Health Insurance Scheme and National
Pension Commission, among others.
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