Nigeria: National ID card is free, but only 19% Nigerians are registered – Official
Published: 21/Oct/2019
Source: Premium Times (Abuja)
Less than 20 per cent of Nigerians are registered in the National Identity Database of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), an official has said.
This is despite the registration and collection of the ID cards being free, Hadiza Dagabana, the Acting Director-General of NIMC said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria.
Established by the NIMC Act No. 23 of 2007, the agency, according to its website, has the mandate to “establish, own, operate, maintain and manage the National Identity Database in Nigeria, register persons covered by the Act, assign a Unique National Identification Number (NIN) and issue General Multi-Purpose Cards (GMPC) to those who are citizens of Nigeria as well as others legally residing within the country.”
Since its establishment, however, and despite several years of trying to convince Nigerians to register, only over 37 million Nigerians of the estimated 200 million population are registered, Mrs Dagabana said.
This number of registered is less than half the 84 million who registered for the 2019 general elections. This is despite that unlike the voter registration, the NIMC registration is not restricted to people 18 years and above.