Why Nigerians ‘ll Pay For New National ID Card — NiMC
By Kolawole Ojebisi
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has explained why Nigerians should pay for the new multipurpose national identity card.
The Head of Card Management Services at NiMC, Peter Iwegbu, gave the explanation on Thursday while speaking at a two-day press conference in Lagos.
Iwegbu also noted that paying for the identity card would ensure it is produced for only those who needed it.
He said the decision was made to avoid repeating the mistake of past efforts to issue physical cards to Nigerians for free, which many did not collect.
The NIMC official said over two million cards were produced in a previous attempt to issue free national ID cards by the commission. He said many of them have not been collected till 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,” Iwegbu said.
Aside from low collection, Iwegbu said the government could not fund the production of ID cards due to limited revenue.
“The government’s limited revenue is also a major factor in the decision to make Nigerians pay for the new ID card,” he added.
Also speaking, Lanre Yusuf, director of information technology at NIMC, said the idea of a free national ID card did not turn out well in the past.
Yusuf described the new ID card as a post-paid identity card, which means that individuals must need the card before initiating a request for it.
Yusuf also said the multipurpose ID cards are expected to launch soon, with sample test cards already received.
“The new national ID card is a multipurpose card that can serve the purpose of identity verification, payments, and even government services,” he said.
In April, the federal government unveiled plans to launch a multipurpose national identity card.
The card, powered by AfriGO, is in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System.
The card is enabled for all government intervention and services across multiple ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).
