TheCable

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) says 107.33 million Nigerians have been enrolled into the national identification number (NIN) database as of May 2023.

Abisoye Coker-Odusote, director-general of NIMC, made this known at a press conference in Abuja on Friday.

Coker-Odusote said as of May 10, 107,338,004 Nigerians have enrolled for NIN.

She said the number increased by over three million compared to the 104.16 million data recorded in December 2023.

Coker-Odusote also said despite the issue of outdated equipment in a lot of centres, the target is to upgrade the capacity from 100 million to 250 million.

“We’ve started to work on the upgrade capacity across all board, from the network infrastructure perspective, from the software licencing areas, all the way down to the database,” she said

“We are working on that at the moment to increase the capacity that we have. We are trying to ensure that we increase from 100 milliom to 250 million. That process will take us a minimum of six months to nine months. So it’s a lot of work that needs to be done.

“We need to equip all existing enrollment centres.

“Our goal is to register all Nigerians so our approach is to go to people and not them coming to us. This way, we are having our centres available at major places.”

‘MULTIPURPOSE NATIONAL ID CARD NOT FREE’

Coker-Odusote also said Nigerians will have to pay to get the new multipurpose national identity card.

“Just like how you pay to access your ATM cards in the banks, Nigerians will pay through the banks to access their cards within 48 hours after payment to get the digital multipurpose card,” she said.

She added that applicants will have to submit their NIN through a self-service online portal or the banks to request the digital card.

The DG said the card as well as the price will be officially unveiled soon.

Coker-Odusote also said NIMC will ensure cardholders’ data are protected.