….. 167 million Nigerians yet to be linked – Pantanmi
In what could be described as a feat, the National Identity Management Commission,NIMC, has been able to link 21million subscribers with their Subscribers Identity Module(SIM) between December 2020 and September this year.
This figure is part of the 64 million phone subscribers already linked to the National identity scheme.
Executive vice- chairman of the National Communication Commission,NCC, Professor Umaru Danbatta disclosed in Abuja,Thursday.
Speaking at the seminar titled “Citizens Identity Management in a Digital Economy” .
Represented by the Director of Projects of NCC,Mrs Iyabode Solanke,he said the feat was achieved out of the 187milion subscriber base of the telecommunications operators.
He said that to facilitate this all license operators were granted approval to provide NIN enrollment at their service centres.
Said he,” from a modest figure of 40 million subscribers linked in December 2020, we have been able to record 64million as at August 2021 adding that the NCC has been fully involved in the enrollment to achieve a unified data base of citizens and residents in Nigeria.
Professor Danbatta revealed that for now the enrollment figure of 64 million represents 29.7% of the nations population.
He spoke of the immense advantages which a credible digital base could attract for a sustainable development of the economy with the added potentials to increase the value of the nations Gross Domestic Product.
“For any economy to succeed, identity data must be available for every individual.He praised the efforts and support of the Communications minister,Isa Pantami aimed at strengthening the capacity of the commission to achieve it’s set goals as regulatory agent of the sector.
In his own contribution,Communications minister,Professor Isa Pantanmi , represented by Engineer Aliyu Aliyu Abubakar Aziz, the Director General of National Identity Management Commission,NIMC,
observed that the country has a backlog of 167 million citizens not yet registered .
He described digital management of the nations subscriber base as a game changer “which will reduce processing time and build trust and expand the market.
Speaking further,Patanmi said the challenges with management of the nations digital space has been more of network.
In spite of this he said study have shown that 80% of Nigerians are not properly identified.
This he said has contributed to affecting effective security management for the nation.
He said research has shown that the country could reap annual $29 billion fund from a properly managed digital platform.
In his own contribution,Barrister Leke Adewolu,Executive Commissioner in charge of stakeholders spoke of efforts to protect consumers especially the poor and vulnerable people who are supposed to benefit from a digitalised economy.
Among this measures he said ,include funding infrarastrural development like hardware,soft ware.
The NCC, he said is also looking into aspects of funding and verification of NIN process for easy achievement of the target set.
The event was well attended by major stakeholders and their representatives which included the Chairman of Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria,ALTON, Engineer Gbenga Adebayo,David Russel,United States commercial attache,Dr Abimbola Ale of NICOMSAT, representatives of Director General of NIMC,Chuka Onyeagbumka and other industry stakeholders.
