Aliyu Aziz Archives - Tech Digest News

NIN Enrolment Rises To 89 Million – DG NIMC

Techdigest — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 18:46:24 +0000

NIN Enrolment Rises To 89 Million – DG NIMC

TECHDIGEST – Eighty nine Million Nigerians have now been captured under the National Identity Number (NIN) enrolment.

This was disclosed by the Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Mr Aliyu Aziz, at a press conference ahead of the 4th National Identity Day scheduled for Friday in Abuja.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, Aziz stated that this is a rise of 82 million compared to 7 million in 2015.

Mr Aliyu Aziz noted that the theme of this year’s 4th National Identity Day would be ‘Traditional Institutions as Critical Stakeholders for Citizens Mobilization’, citing that the registration numbers are up by 82 million from the seven million he met when he assumed office in November 2015.

“In this year’s Identity Day, we are partnering with the traditional institutions and their leaders to create awareness on NIN enrolment.

”Since then, we have been growing the database at the average of two to three million monthly.

”The 89 million are the mainstream people so there are still remaining the local people in villages, petty traders, market people and artisan in rural areas across the country. NIN is the right of everyone,” he said.

He added that NIN is a tool for empowerment and greater use of digital Identity can help bring development and coordination for better delivery of government services. He stated that the NIMC had increased its equipment upgrade from 1000 to 29,000 nationwide, urging the new enrollees to always go with literate people to reduce errors in the process of their enrolment.

He also disclosed that the NIMC charges some stipends for modification of biodata of enrollees, however, reiterated that the enrolment was free for every citizen and legal residents.

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VerifyMe Unveils Nigeria’s 1st Digital ID and KYC Industry Report

Abbas Badmus — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 18:12:57 +0000

VerifyMe Unveils Nigeria’s 1st Digital ID and KYC Industry Report

TECHDIGEST – Identity verification and KYC technology startup, VerifyMe Nigeria, in partnership with global consulting firm, Dalberg Advisors, has announced the release of Digital ID in Nigeria: State of the Industry Report.

The 33-page report is the first independent assessment of the country’s digital identity and eKYC segment as government, private sector stakeholders and civil society take accelerated action towards driving a digital transformation agenda to enable inclusion and growth in Africa’s largest economy.

Contributors to the report include: Aliyu Abubakar Aziz, Director General, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), digital identity companies in Nigeria and other ancillary players who all collaborated to further the discourse as well as advance the landscape.

Speaking on the report, Esigie Aguele, co-founder and chief executive officer at VerifyMe, stated: “As an identity and KYC company that is helping to solve the problem of financial inclusion, we see the digital identity space not just as a business but as a critical aspect of sustainable development and financial inclusion in Nigeria and Africa.”

“We see the partnership Dalberg Advisors, a leading impact advisory group that brings together strategy consulting, design thinking, big analytics and research to address complex social and environmental challenges, as critical. Not only does the Digital ID in Nigeria: State of the Industry report provide a comprehensive snapshot of the Nigerian digital identify ecosystem, but we also believe it will promote standardisation and build capacity and collaboration within the Nigerian industry,” he added.

“Digital identity has the potential to drive greater social and financial inclusion around the world, but especially in countries such as Nigeria which are digitizing and innovating rapidly,” said Robin Miller, partner and global digital & data practice lead at Dalberg Advisors. “Our hope for this report is that it results in a greater understanding of the state of the industry in Nigeria today, but also the steps necessary to ensure that digital IDs live up to their promise of driving truly inclusive growth.”

Themes explored include: the potential of digital identity, challenges of uptake in Nigeria and recommendations to advance the digital identity system in Nigeria. The report also contains use cases from the financial services, eCommerce and government sectors.

Download the report here.

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We’ve Licensed Airtel, MTN, Others to Register Nigerians for NIN – NIMC

Techdigest — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 17:02:08 +0000

We’ve Licensed Airtel, MTN, Others to Register Nigerians for NIN – NIMC
TECH DIGEST – The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has licensed telecommunications companies to register people who do not have National Identity Numbers (NIN) so as to reduce the large crowds at the offices of the commission.
Director-General, NIMC, Aliyu Aziz, who disclosed this, said some other private and public organizations had also been licensed by the commission to provide NINs in order to address the crowds at commission’s offices.
This came as workers of the commission said on Tuesday that the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, had constituted a committee to address the demands of NIMC employees.
NIMC workers had downed tools on January 7, 2021 in protest against the poor welfare issues at the commission, but their strike was suspended after the intervention of the minister.
Responding to an enquiry as regards measures taken by NIMC with respect to complains by citizens and the crowds at the commission’s offices, Aziz said mobile network operators had been empowered to also give the national identity numbers.
“We have licensed private and public sector organizations including telcos (telecommunications companies) so as to create more centres,” he stated in a WhatsApp message to our correspondent.
On December 15, 2020, the Federal Government declared that after December 30, 2020, all SIMs that were not registered with valid NINs on the network of telecommunications companies would be blocked.
It later extended the December 30, 2020 deadline following widespread opposition against the earlier announcement and gave three weeks’ extension for subscribers with NIN from December 30, 2020 to January 19, 2021.
It also gave six weeks’ extension for subscribers without NIN from December 30, 2020 to February 9, 2021, but many organizations had called for further deadline extension or outright suspension of the NIN registration process due to the large crowds who had yet to have their NINs.
On the meeting between NIMC workers and the communication minister, the President, Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, NIMC Unit, Asekokhai Lucky, said some resolutions were reached.
He said the minister told the union that some of the demands being presented by the workers were new to him, as he only took over the supervisory role of NIMC in October 2020.
“So what he (Pantami) did was to set up a seven-man committee to work on the issues and submit a report to him in two weeks’ time,” Lucky stated.
Lucky said the 21-day ultimatum earlier issued the management of NIMC was still in force, although there had been calls for the union to step down the ultimatum.

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Fed Govt Licenses 203 Agents To Boost NIN Enrolment

Techdigest — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 19:25:12 +0000

Fed Govt Licenses 203 Agents To Boost NIN Enrolment

TECH DIGEST – The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), has approved the licensing of 173 private sector Agents and 30 State Governments/Public Sector Institutions to conduct enrolment of Nigerians and legal residents into the National Identity Database (NIDB) on behalf of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

The Director-General/Chief Executive of NIMC, Engr. Aliyu Aziz, who disclosed this on Friday in Abuja, that the licensed agents were explained that the approval was made after the agents successfully fulfilled all the conditions in the advertised Expression of Interest (EOI) which was done in 2019 as a first step towards the take off the National Digital Identity Ecosystem project.

According to him, a breakdown of the successful licensees shows that 16 state governments were licensed, including Abia, Akwa Ibom, Gombe, Lagos, Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Oyo, Ogun, Sokoto and Zamfara states.

Prominent among the public sector institutions licensed are the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Pension Commission, Central Bank of Nigeria (through the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems Plc), National Population Commission, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Joint Tax Board and Nigeria Postal Services.

Other public sector organisations issued licences include Military Pensions Board, Abuja Enterprise Agency, Corporate Affairs Commission, National Health Insurance Scheme, National Agricultural Extension & Research Liaison Services and National Commission for Refugees, Migrants & Internally Displaced Persons.

The main mobile network operators in Nigeria, MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9mobile are among the 173 private sector organisations licensed, while Etranzact, VDT Communications, Unified Payment Services were also among successful licensees.

Seven NGOs, namely Africa Youth Growth Foundation, An Nadaa Educational Foundation Arrida Relief Foundation, Hadejia Ina Mafita Initiative Community Based Organisation Mimido Initiative & Development and Murna Foundation were also licensed.

The NIMC boss said the licensing of enrolment agents was in line with the Federal Government’s strategy to scale up enrolment and issuance of the National Identification Number (NIN) to Nigerians and legal residents, thereby liberalising the enrolment process and opening up the sector for multiple players.

“The Digital Identity Ecosystem project’s goal is to increase the number of enrolment centres in the country from the current meagre1000 to 10,000 and enrolment figures from the current figure of 43 million to 200 million within the next five years.

“The initiative is one of the cardinal pillars of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS). It is driven by the NIMC working with the public and private service-providers as partners, including State/Local Governments, Public Institutions, Civil Society Organisations, and qualified private vendors for the enrolment of Nigerians and legal residents in Nigeria into a centralised and secure National Identity Database.

“The initiative is also to support the Federal Government’s effort at tackling insecurity in the country.

“The project aims to eliminate the bottlenecks involved in the enrolment process. It will also improve the identity authentication of citizens and make all identity-related transactions safe within and outside the country,” he added.

According to Aziz, the approved agents are to commence enrolment of all Nigerians and legal residents immediately.

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