By 
By Oluwatobi Opusunju
Only 18.5 million Nigerians, about 10% of the population, have been enrolled for the National Identity Number (NIN) by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), a low figure the NIMC is attributing to the current economic challenges faced by the country.
The Director General of NIMC, Mr. Aliyu Aziz made this known to pressmen in Lagos during a recent interaction with the media. Aziz said funding is one of the major challenges the commission is faced with in the execution of its mandate. Funding has undermined the commission’s ability to achieve its registration targets especially in the area of issuing the national identity cards to enrolled citizens.
According to Aziz, the commission had produced 1.2 million cards but explained that not all the 1.2 million cards have been issued. He blamed financial challenges for the commission’s inability to produce cards for the remaining 17.3 million enrolled citizens.
“The Commission as at today has enrolled about 18.5 million Nigerians into the National Identity Database and have established up to 809 NIN enrolment centres nationwide as well as launch a new electronic National ID Card with multiple functions amongst other things,” he stated.
“But one of the key challenges and overriding hindrance the Commission is faced with is funding which is due to the economic state of the Nation. Another challenge is the area of poor staff remuneration, which leads to constant loss of strategic human resources,” added Aziz.
