The House of Representatives has asked the National Identity Management Commission to redesign the national identity card such that the National Identity Number of the bearer is written on it.
The card followed the unanimous adoption of a motion of urgent public importance moved by a member of the House, Fredrick Agbedi, at the plenary on Wednesday.
Agbedi while moving the motion titled ‘Need to Have National Identity Number Displayed on the National Identity Card,’ noted that the NIN is used by the government of many countries as a means of tracking their citizens’ permanent and temporary residency for work and other purposes.
The lawmaker also noted that the NIN is issued and managed by the NIMC which was established to manage Nigerians’ identity in government institutions, register individuals and introduce general multipurpose cards.
According to him, the NIN, which matches one’s biometrics, is used for virtually all transactions in Nigeria requiring identity verification.
Agbedi said, “Recently, the Commission started issuing a digital ID card which displays only the name, age and nationality of the holder without displaying the NIN number. The Commission failed to include the NIN to the ID card and it has brought untold hardship to the citizens who, in a bid to retrieve their NIN via shortcodes provided by telecommunications providers, pay for the service.”
Adopting the motion, the lawmakers “urge NIMC to further redesign their national identity cards to carry or reflect NIN.”