The National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, Managing Director, Engr Aliyu Azeez, disclosed this on Thursday at the 3rd National Identity Day celebration tagged: “Identity, A Tool for Sustainable Digital Economy And National Security” at Banquet Hall, State House, in Abuja.

Commenting on the progress, the MD said the figure increased from 6 million in 2015 to 63 million in September 2021, a quantum leap made possible by the commitment and support of Mr President and the minister by approving the harmonization of NIN with BVN and Sim cards and compulsory use of the NIN.

Following the approval, he said the NIN has become compulsory for examination registration, banking services, driving license processing, international passport, and other public services.

He noted that the Commission is focused on attaining the 184 million target set for it by the minister in the next four years with a monthly target of 5 million enrollments.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, disclosed this while briefing newsmen after a facility tour and inspection of the ongoing NIN enrolment exercise at NIMC and other designated centres in Abuja.

He said he had made a presentation to the National Economic Sustainability Committee and drew the attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Governor on the need to replace BVN with NIN.

According to him, the BVN is a regulator’s policy, while NIN is a law.

“The strength of the law wherever you go is not the same with a policy of one institution,’’ he said.

The minister noted that BVN was only applicable to those who had a bank account while NIN was for every citizen and legal resident in the country.

“BVN is our secondary database, while NIN and the database is the primary one in the country that each and every institution should make reference to NIMC,” he said.

Pantami boasted that Nigeria was at the forefront in Africa in regard to data protection regulations, claiming that the level of security in the entire database was 99.9 per cent.

“That is why we came up with the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation that we always enforce and this is applicable to the database at our disposal.

“We take care of it and make sure that security is excellent and we don’t allow anybody to compromise the content because it is a trust from our citizens given to us,’’ he said.

He emphasised the need for NIMC to focus on regulatory work and set the standards for biometrics registration, measuring of heights, standard for data to be collected and general verification.

The agency therefore, asked those who are affected to complete their NIN at the NIMC office for validation.

Recall that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in November 2020 ordered all telcos to block the SIM cards that are not linked to NIN by the end of January.

Also, the agency earlier announced that NIN generated by the BVN can be used after it has been updated at the NIMC enrollment centre.

The biometrics capturing part of the registration can only be done at the NIMC enrollment centre.

But the agency in a tweet said the NIN registration must be completed despite NIN generation through BVN.

“You must complete your NIN registration even if your BVN has generated a NIN.”

“If your NIN was generated due to the BVN record harmonization with the National Identity Database, you will not have access to the NIMC mobile app and your NIN-SIM integration will be invalid. Visit an enrollment centre to complete NIN registration,” the tweet read.