NIMC, NOA collaborate to register 1.5 million Plateau residents before end of 2018

The National Orientation Agency is partnering the National Identity Management Commission to register 1.5 million residents in Plateau for National Identification Number before end of 2018.
At a joint news conference by the organisations on Wednesday in Jos, Bulus Dabit, the State Director of NOA in Plateau, said the target would be achieved through mass mobilisation campaigns.
He said the campaigns would be intensified at worship centres, educational institutions and media campaigns.
Dabit said: “The campaigns will be across the 17 local Government Areas of Plateau. The mobilisation efforts aim at increasing citizens’ enthusiasm to enroll in the NIN process.”
The NOA Director said that NIN would protect holders from Identity theft and fraud, adding that it would also be necessary for registration and renewal of vehicle license and international passports, amongst others.
He said: “Benefits of NIN include assisting in making tax payments convenient through easy access to citizens’ information on the NIMC database.
“It also makes it difficult for criminals to have multiple identifications for their evil acts and it aids national planning.”
Dabit said the NOA offices, across the 17 LGAs in the state, would serve as registration centres for NIMC to enable rural dwellers that might not have information technology skills and tools to embark on self-enrollment.
He also said that the self-enrollment process could be done online to fast-tracked issuance of the NIN as 50 per cent of the requirements would have been concluded before printouts would be taken to NIMC centres to complete the exercise.
Paul Gofwan, the State Coordinator of NIMC in Plateau, said that indigent Nigerians would be one of the major beneficiaries of the NIMC exercise.
He said this group were usually short-changed in accessing social services and interventions such as fertiliser allocation and free medical services.
Gofwan said: “Vulnerable groups targeted for interventions usually do not benefit because they have no form of verifiable identity materials for such processes which the NIN can address.
“However, with this scheme, citizens’ data are already captured for such purposes to prevent multiple verification and nepotism in interventions.’’
He said the NIN would be important in agriculture interventions such as the Anchor Borrowers Programme for evaluation, grants allocation and agricultural extension services.
The NIMC official implored citizens and legal residents in Nigeria to register to get the national identity cards which could only be issued by having the NIN.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that NIMC was established to harmonise and integrate existing identification data bases in Nigeria.
NIMC was also established to create, own, operate, maintain and manage National Identity Database, register citizens and legal residents and assign unique NIN as well as issue identity cards to registered persons.