At least, 58 million Nigerians have now been assigned the National Identity Number (NIN) across the country.
Also, a total of 5,410 enrolment systems are now available across the country to aid registrations. The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami had revealed all these when he spoke at the ICT Stakeholders Meeting held in Lagos on Thursday.
The Minister said there have been significant improvements in the registration process adding that the current number of enrolment systems rose from 800 in December 2020.
He said, “Significant progress has been made in the NIN registration process across the country. For example, as at 2019, the NIN database had only 38.3 million entries. Based on the updates of the NIN registration process, over 58 million Nigerians have now been assigned NINs. The current number of monthly enrolments has increased significantly (by about 500%) to over 2.6 million registrations.”
He said the recent presidential directive for the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to be moved to the Ministry is part of the government’s efforts towards accelerating the implementation of the Digital Identity Programme.
He added that enhancing security in the Nation became germane adding that “We have coordinated the development of a Revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration. This Policy makes the use of NIN mandatory for all SIM registration in the country.”
He said as at June 28, 2021, a total of 5,410 enrolment systems are now available across the country saying this would significantly ease the NIN enrolment process and subsequent linkage of NIN to SIM.
He explained, “It is worthy of note that there were only about 800 such enrolment systems as at December 2020.
With the transition to digital platforms, it is crucial that we ensure privacy and the safety of online transitions. To this end, we are partnering with the Office of the National Security Adviser and other institutions to ensure that our cyberspace is more secure.”