The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has clarified its stance on the new national Identity card project designed to promote financial inclusion and other social services.

The clarification became necessary following the barrage of criticisms against the new policy considered unnecessary and a waste of resources.

Major stakeholders have asked NIMC to improve on its infrastructures and conclude the ongoing capturing of citizens into its National Identity database, instead of toying with the idea of a new national identity card mid-way and taking over the roles of financial institutions.

Due to infrastructure deficits, the commission had encountered a series of issues with its Servers in the past creating major problems for citizens who needed to link their National Identity Numbers (NIN) with their Subscriber’s Identity Modules (SIM) and those who were seeking the NIN for Passports issuance.However, the Head of Corporate Communications of the NIMC, Kayode Adegoke, clarified in a message that “the new National ID Card is a single, convenient, and General multipurpose card (GMPC), eliminating the need for multiple cards—not three.”

He said: “The single GMPC has multiple use cases:  Payments/Financial, Government intervention/services, travel, etc

“The National Identity Management Commission is working with the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System to deliver the payment and financial use cases.

“The card will be powered by the AFRIGO card scheme, an indigenous scheme powered by NIBSS.

“Applicants for the card will have to request with their NIN through the self-service online portal, NIMC offices, or their respective banks

“The card will be issued through the applicants’ respective banks in line with existing protocols with the issuance of the Debit/Credit cards.

“The card can be picked up by holders at the designated centre or delivered to the applicants at the requested location at an extra cost to be borne by the applicants.”

END.