The Director General of the National Identity Management Commission, Aliyu Aziz, has enjoined Nigerians to make sure that they register and obtain their national identity number from the organisation.
Aziz stated this on Monday in Lagos during the conferment of fellowship awards on some deserving Nigerians by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations.
Aziz said the duplicity of other sister agencies in collecting personal data has led to a “big data forest”.
He, however, urged Nigerians to embrace NIMC as other “functional identity system” in the country are usually expensive.
Aziz, who was represented by Uche Chigbuo, the project manager of the commission, explained that one does not need a driving licence if one does not intend to drive and one does not need an international passport if one does not intend to travel, but one needs a valid identity card form NIMC to enable the government make adequate and necessary plans.
He lauded the initiative of the Nigerian Immigration Service for issuing a January 1 deadline of not allowing anyone to get a new international passport or renewal without being registered with NIMC and he also stated that up to 12 and 13 agencies are collecting identities and most Nigerians are lackadaisical in their approach in getting registered and obtaining their cards due to the fact that there is no incentive or reward attached to it.
This, according to him, has made the organisation to start partnering with other sister agencies for harmonization.
Aziz stated that the agency is working also with the banks in using the BVN to harmonise details and over 23 million Nigerians so far have registered and the orgainsation intends to have 28 million Nigerians registered by December 2018.
He advised Nigerians who have registered but are yet to get their cards that the organisation is working towards that and everything will be rectified as soon as possible.