TheCable

The Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights (CASER), a civil society organisation, has urged President Bola Tinubu to prioritise the funding of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday,  Frank Tietie, executive director of CASER,  said NIMC plays an important role in data collection and contributes to the planning and implementation of government policies. 

Tietie also said the commission needs the necessary resources and adequate funding to fulfil its mandate.

“We will begin by urging the government to pay very close attention to the objectives and functions of the NIMC,” Tietie said. 

“This is very important to ensure that the importance of identity management for the provision of social register, for the provision of ensuring that data is deployed in such a manner that it either corroborates already existing data or coordinates all existing data that have been collected in Nigeria.

“All important role, therefore demands the adequate funding being made available to NIMC to ensure that it carries out its functions.”

He expressed optimism that if the government supports NIMC adequately, “it will solve 50 percent of the country’s development problems by making data available seamlessly for other relevant bodies that work with data”. 

“This will make life better for the Nigerian citizen. It will be easier for both government and international development partners to have correct data to assess for planning, and execution of policies and programmes,” Tietie added. 

He urged Tinubu to pay attention to NIMC so that it can continue to do its work and unlock Nigeria’s development potential.

Tietie commended the current leadership of NIMC under Abisoye Coker-Odusote, for its “one card” initiative, which combines identification, financial services, and access to government services.

“That means one card can serve for identification, one card can serve the purpose of financial engagement or financial inclusion. It can also be used as access cards for government services,” he said.  

“We’ve seen that very smart and innovative deployment of technology by this current management of the NIMC which we find very, very commendable.

“It’s an indication that we, as a country are getting closer to the point where we will have a seamless and relevant identity management system that will not only aid planning for better economic development, but for more strategic deployment of resources in terms of allocation of resources, and then to also manage this, nearly intractable is a security situation that we are facing in this country.”