TheCable

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) says it is struggling with high maintenance costs, outdated computers, and poor connectivity.

According to the commission, the issues have hampered the national identity number (NIN) enrolment process.

Ibrahim Daniel, director, special duties, NIMC, said this on Tuesday in Abuja at the official meeting between the ministry of communications and digital economy and the Russian Software Trade House.

TheCable had reported that the federal government extended the integration of the NIN and subscriber identity module (SIM) exercise till Dec 31.

Over 67 million Nigerians have registered for NIN as the registration became mandatory following the federal government’s directive asking telcos to block sim cards that are not linked to NIN.

Speaking at the event, Daniel solicited training, especially in database management, for NIMC staff.

“There are a lot of things needed here. The first is to train and build the capacity of our staff, most especially those who work in the department of identity database,” he said.

“This bothers most on the issue of maintenance, particularly some of the servers and equipment there. Most of the time, we outsource to maintain them. It attracts a humongous amount of money. But if we have in-house trained staff on that, it would reduce the cost.”

Daniel said that the current NIMC database is based on the design of the Pakistanis.

“Most of the things installed there at the inception were not by Nigerians. Most of them were by the Pakistani national database. So, we need training for participants particularly for maintenance,” the director said.

He added that a number of the enrolment computer devices were obsolete and needed to be replaced.

“At the enrolment centres also, we have obsolete enrolment peripherals. Most of the desktops are outdated and need to be updated,” he added.

“We need high definition computers and some other peripherals that would fast-track the enrolment system.

“We have the issue of connectivity; it is not fast. There is a delay because of the large volume of enrolments that are coming in.

“It is not moving as fast as required and there are complaints and criticisms from the applicants. That is another critical area.”