NIMC decries low turnout for national identification number enrollment in Abia

The National Identity Management Commission has decried the low turnout of people for the National Identification Number registration in Abia.
Ukpabi Eni, the Coordinator of NIMC in Abia, made this disclosure in an interview with the News of Agency in Umuahia on Thursday.
According to him, only 360,000 residents are registered till date since the commencement of the exercise in 2012 in the state.
He said the figure was only about 10 per cent of the population of the state, estimated at three million people.
Eni said that the figure was not encouraging, considering the importance of the registration.
The coordinator attributed the low turnout to poor awareness as well as the attitude of the people towards the exercise.
For this reason, he said the agency was collaborating with the National Orientation Agency to sensitise the public on the programme.
He said: “We equally have media representative in the state to make sure there is more publicity, by liaising with media houses to enlighten the people.”
Eni also regretted the lack of resources to cover especially the rural areas by the agency, saying it had hampered its progress.
He said: “We need standard mobile equipment because there are areas where people will not be able to come out to urban places to register.
“Even if you take your equipment there, network may not be available to process what you have registered; so we need a vehicle that is well equipped with Vsat to do the job properly.”
Eni decried the  paucity of fund in the agency, as the budgetary allocation was allegedly poor, which he said remained a threat to the exercise.
However, he said the agency was trying to involve the state government in the programme, saying: “Yes, we are federal agency but we can’t do it all alone”.