The Federal Government is in the process of replacing the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and other data collected by data collecting institutions with the National Identity Number (NIN), the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has said.
The Minister disclosed this on Monday, February 8 in Abuja when he led a delegation of chief executive officers on a visit to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs); as well as a private enrolling center in Abuja.
Pantami said after making a presentation to the National Economic Sustainability Committee; his attention and that of the CBN Governor were drawn to the need to replace BVN with NIN.
He said since then, the two establishments had been working on the initiative; adding that CBN had more workload to facilitate the process in order to make it much easier for Nigerians.
According to Pantami, the challenge is that the BVN records may not be 100 per cent the same as the NIN. However, he noted that what is most important is that the NIN is the primary identity of every legal resident in Nigeria.
He said “BVN is a policy of a bank and has not been established by law.
“The NIMC Act 2007 provides that all our citizens must enroll and the law gives them 60 days to enroll; from the time the law was enacted and a maximum of 180 days.
“All permanent residents in the country and legal residents that have to stay here for a minimum of 24 months must enroll. So, the primary identification of all and all other databases are supposed to utilise this; and not for NIN to utilise the BVN because it is the primary one.
“Some of the challenges encountered, NIMC produced the template for registering citizens in passport, BVN and others. But some institutions did not comply with the requirements.
“Even in biometrics, some will just take four, some two, so you cannot harmonise without upgrading and integrating the system.”
He listed members on the board of NIMC, which include CBN Governor, DG SSS, Chairman FIRS, INEC Chairman; as well as Office of National Security Adviser, National Population Commission, and Nigeria Immigration Service as members.
He hinted that the Federal Government had accredited 203 operators that would help enroll citizens to secure their NIN, adding that the visit was to oversee how the exercise had been.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of Office Machines Nigeria Limited, Mr Okechukwu Ikpe, one of the accredited operators centre that was visited by the minister expressed delight and assured that the centre would do its best to meet with expectations.
On her path, Stock Controller, Gloworld, Abuja, Mrs Regina Omenogor, showed appreciation and commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the initiative, adding that a lot of people can just walk in and register.
“It is accessible now and since we work for a private organisation, we maintain all the COVID-19 protocols as directed by Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and the presidency,” she said.
