Dangote Urges Nigerians to Register for National IDs

Aliko Dangote, president, Dangote group, has called on Nigerians to get enrolled in the ongoing registration for National Identity Cards being carried out by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

The business mogul who made the call just as the NIMC, also cited the economic benefits of having a robust unified national identity card management.

Dangote spoke when the management of the Commission visited him in his office in Lagos and presented him with his Identity slip as well as a draft report of the Strategic Roadmap for Developing Digital Identification in Nigeria.

He explained that the national identity management policy of the Federal Government is pivotal to the economic growth strategy being implemented by the government, saying key government services would be delivered efficiently and effectively when government knows the categories of Nigerians in need of such services.

According to him, critical government programmes relating to social safety net, education, financial inclusion, insurance cover as well as credible elections depend heavily on proper identification.

Dangote told the NIMC management to copy from the India with a larger population and which had also successfully carried out Digital Identification of all its citizens and that with collaboration with partners and adequate awareness campaign, the Commission can successfully accomplish the task of enrolling all Nigerians within the shortest possible time.

The businessman commended the Commission’s management for its foresight in tapping into the Indian strategy and seeking collaborative efforts to carry out its assignment.

Speaking earlier, Aliyu Aziz, director-general and chief executive officer of the Commission, said that the commission has enrolled till date 30 million Nigerians and that efforts are on to capture the entire population within the next three years.

He said that the Commission is adopting an Eco system just as india to liberalize the enrolment process by licensing state and local governments, business organizations, bodies and agencies to enroll the citizens while the Commission only regulate their activities.

Aziz stated after the enrolment, the NIMC would then pay the organizations on performance based taking into consideration the number of citizens enrolled successfully.

The Commission, he added, was in the final stage of the system.

Aziz explained that the system is programmed to start in July and when followed through the entire population could be captured within the next three years, while noting that the national identity card would be a multi-purpose one that could be used to access a lot of services that the people depend on daily.

He said: “We are trying to do Eco system as adopted in India to simplify the process of capturing the citizens.

“NIMC will licence state, local governments, business organizations and agencies who will do the registration and the NIMC will only regulate their activities.

“At the end of their exercise, the NIMC will pay them on performance basis.

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