The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has explained that Nigerians will have to pay for the new multipurpose national Identity card to ensure that it is produced for only those who need it.
The Head of Card Management Services at NIMC, Dr. Peter Iwegbu, stated this on Thursday during a media workshop organized by the Commission in Lagos.
Iwegbu said the decision was made by the Engr. Bisoye Coker-Odusote-led NIMC to avoid repeating the mistake of the past efforts to issue physical cards to Nigerians for free, which many Nigerians did not collect.
According to him, over two million cards were produced in the previous attempt to issue free National ID cards by the NIMC, but many of them were uncollected to date.
“Before we stopped due to funding, we produced more than two million cards but a lot of them are still in our office, people were not able to pick them up because they didn’t need it,” he said.
Limited government revenue
Aside from the issue of collection, Iwegbu explained that the government could also not fund production of ID cards this time because of its limited revenue.
“We tried to review the entire project to find out what the problem was. First is that the government has no money to be able to produce this card and give it out for free.
“Second is that people must have a need for the card so that when we produce it, they will pick it up,” he explained.
Corroborating Iwegbu, the Director of IT at NIMC, Engr. Lanre Yusuf said while the idea of a free national ID card as conceived back then by the National Assembly was good, it did not turn out well as many people abandoned the cards.
“What we are working on now is a post-paid identity card; you just need the card before you initiate the request for the card.
“You make a payment, choose where you want to collect the card and you go and pick it up.
“You cannot go through all these and pay for it and ignore your card,” Yusuf said.
Provisions for less privileged Nigerians
Iwegbu, however, noted that the government has different programs to make the card available to less-privileged Nigerians who may not be able to pay for the card but need it to access government support.
While noting that the multipurpose cards would launched in a matter of weeks as the sample test cards had been received this week, Iwegbu, said NIMC has also decentralised requesting and collecting the banks to make it easy for Nigerians.
He noted that NIMC is working with banks across the country, which will make it possible for people to walk into any bank closest to them and request the card.
Backstory
The NIMC in April this year announced plans to launch a multipurpose National ID card that can serve the purpose of identity verification, payments, and even government services.
The card to be powered by AfriGO, was launched in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS)
Information released by the NIMC reveals that the card will be enabled for all government intervention and services across multiple Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDA).
Among other capabilities and functionalities, it will also be enabled for the eNaira in compliance with the EMV operational and security standards.
