The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has disclosed that Nigerians will begin to pay before been issued the national identity card as from 2022.
Aliyu Aziz, NIMC director-general, made this known at the reform seminar on National Digital Identity Ecosystem Strategic Road Map for enrollment of Nigerians and legal residents into National Identity Database (NIDB) in Abuja.
According to Aziz, The National e-ID Card can only be issued to Nigerians registered into the national identity system and legal residents who have attained the age of 16 years and above.
Mr. Aliyu Aziz, however, added that the national identification number can only be issued to Nigerians.
“The National e-ID Card can only be issued to Nigerians registered into the national identity system and legal residents who have attained the age of 16 years and above but the national identification number (NIN) is assignable to Nigerians only,”
“As a government, we recognize the huge importance of moving towards a digital government, therefore, we must embrace and harness the potentials inherent in digital identity to build and develop our country.
“Nations all over the world and in particular, developed countries have utilized identity as a foundation to transforming governance and enhancing service delivery in the areas of healthcare, agriculture, voting, transportation, financial inclusion, access to basic service and welfare programmes,” NAN quotes him as saying.
The NIMC boss also assured that no one would be denied government services on account of not possessing the national identity number (NIN).
The NIN can be retrieved on all mobile networks using *346# and pressing one if the phone number enrolled for NIN registration is used but will attract a fee of N20 from the mobile phone balance.
The e-ID card will integrate existing identity database into government institutions and enable everyone to also receive a multipurpose ID card, the NIMC boss added.
