National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) workers under the aegis of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), has asked the federal government to handover the distribution of palliatives to vulnerable Nigerians to NIMC.
Lucky Asekokhai, leader of the unit, in a statement, said NIMC should have been involved in the distribution by authenticating and providing a real time identity of the real vulnerable.
“It is no doubt that NIMC has the only all-inclusive and reliable database in Nigeria”, he said.
According to Asekokhai,, the Bank Verification Number (BVN) with its about 40 million records is restricted to holders of bank account numbers which most vulnerable Nigerians do not have.
He said the incidences of disappearance of COVID- 19 index cases in some states without traces could be taken care of by their National Identity Number, especially if NIMC is adequately funded to get all Nigerians registered.
He said currently the about 42 million Nigerians with their NIN registered with NIMC “and this is actually inadequate for Nigeria’s 200 million population.
“Hence, the Covid-19 and matters arising should as a matter of urgency make FG to provide NIMC with required financial capacity to capture all Nigerians within 2-3 years which will as well help the Federal Government and its allied security agencies to easily fight national and transnational crimes like terrorism and other criminal impunities in the country bordering on identity theft”.