From Segun Amure, (The New Diplomat’s Abuja Bureau)
The Federal Government said it has commenced arrangements to replace the Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) with the National Identity Numbers (NIN).
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Dr Isa Pantami, who addressed newsmen after a tour of telecoms operators and NIN licensees in Abuja, said President Muhammadu Buhari has been briefed on the on-going NIN registrations.
Pantami stated that the President lauded the process and was happy with the conducts of the exercise.
The Minister said he has also briefed the National Economic Sustainability Committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on the imperative of replacing BVN with NIN.
Pantami who compared BVN and NIN, submitted BVN was only for account holders with various banks, while the National Identity Numbers are for all Nigerians irrespective of their status.
In his words, “BVN is a policy of a bank and has not been established by law, NIN is the only mandatory number and the primary identification of our citizens and every other identification is secondary.”
“The NIMC Act 2007 provides that all our citizens must be enrolled and the law gives them 60 days to enroll from the time the law was enacted and a maximum of 180 days and all permanent residents in the country and legal residents that have to stay here for a minimum of 24 months must be enrolled
“So this is the primary identification of all and all other databases are supposed to utilize this and not for NIN to utilize the BVN because it is the primary one.
“We discussed with the CBN Governor today on how to ensure that all our citizens with BVN will immediately be provided with the NIN. We are working on that but facilitating the process lies on CBN to make it much easier for our people.” Pantami said.
To access the level of progress made so far, Pantami visited the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) registration Centre in Gwarinpa, the Zonal Headquarters of MTN, Glo Mobile and Airtel in Maitama as well as a Private operator, OMNL, Nigeria.
He was accompanied by the
Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof Garba Danbatta; Director-General General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa and Chief Executive Officer of NIMC, Engr Aliyu Aziz.
