BY: Oliseama Okwuchukwu
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) have resolved to commence enforcement of the National Identification Number (NIN) on the new enhanced 10 years validity e-passport, the two agencies jointly said on Wednesday.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on January 15 while unveiling the new enhanced e-passport with a 10-year validity directed that the NIN which is issued by the NIMC be inserted as additional data in the new passports.
Both MIMC and NIS said their resolve to commence enforcement was agreed upon during a courtesy call by the Comptroller General of NIS, Muhammad Babandede to the Director General NIMC, Engr. Aliyu Aziz at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
The DG/CEO NIMC, in his address stated that the Commission has upgraded its software and infrastructure to enable the generation of the NIN in just micro seconds. “This means unlike in the past, the NIN is issued instantly to successful enrollees into the NIDB (National Identity Data Base},” he said.
“Few months ago, we had an issue that made NIN generation take up to hours and people had to come back the following day. However, right now it is instantaneous and that is the way we intend to maintain the system. The type of Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) we utilize makes sure that the NIN is unique – that is our only job” Engr. Aziz said.
The NIS CG commended NIMC for the upgrade which has resulted in instant and timely allocation of the NIN.
He also reiterated the NIS willingness to accommodate NIMC in all its 44 diplomatic missions abroad and 42 locations in Nigeria to ensure that all Nigerians and legal residents are enrolled into the National Identity Database.
“We are ready to provide space for you to operate in our locations to facilitate real time online, integration. If an immigration officer touches the computer, he should be able to connect to NIMC real time online, get the number, so that he can issue a passport “, Babandede said.
Babandede also expressed optimism for the collaboration “as a test run carried out by the NIS with 1,000 NIN samples to match with 1,000 biometric visas yielded a success rate of 89.4% which means it is good and that Nigerians are providing accurate information.”
He also assured that both agencies would continue to work together to ensure that there are no bottlenecks in the process.