National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is a statutory

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

n organization that operates the country's national identity management systems. It was established by the NIMC Act No. 23 of 2007 to create, operate and manage Nigeria's national identity card database, integrate the existing identity database in government institutions, register individuals and legal residents, assign a unique national identification number and introduce general multi-purpose cards.

History

A national identity card system was initially conceived in 1977 but the project did not see the light of the day. In 2003, a new scheme managed by the Directorate of National Civic Registration (DNCR) was initiated and about 54 million Nigerians were registered, however, the scheme failed to meet official expectations and was also hampered by allegations of corruption and embezzlement of funds. The National Identity Management Commission came into effect in 2010 and an initial budget of about 30 billion

naira The naira (sign: ₦; code: NGN) is the currency of Nigeria. One naira is divided into 100 ''kobo''. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is the sole issuer of legal tender money throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It controls the volume ...

was appropriated in the 2011 federal budget. The commission subsequently entered into an agreement with the

National Database & Registration Authority The National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA) ( ur, ) is an independent and autonomous agency under the control of the Interior Secretary of Pakistan that regulates government databases and statistically manages the sensitive registra ...

of Pakistan to develop computerized national identity cards for Nigerians. The commission also partnered with two consortiums, the first led by Chams Nigeria and the second, OneSecureCard consortium composed of

Interswitch Interswitch is a leading African integrated payments and digital commerce platform company headquartered in Lagos. Founded in 2002 in Nigeria, as a transaction switching and processing company with national focus, Interswitch progressively evolved ...

, SecureID, and Iris Technologies to provide data capture services.Onyebuchi Ezigbo. (2010). Govt Signs Contract for New ID Card Project, This Day (Lagos), July 26, 2010

National identification number

The

national identification number A national identification number, national identity number, or national insurance number or JMBG/EMBG is used by the governments of many countries as a means of tracking their citizens, permanent residents, and temporary residents for the purp ...

is a part of Nigeria's National Identity Management System, the other part is the General Multi-Purpose Card. The number stores an individual's unique data into the database. It is part of a measure to create a national identity database and to prevent both double identity and

identity fraud Identity fraud is the use by one person of another person's personal information, without authorization, to commit a crime or to deceive or defraud that other person or a third person. Most identity fraud is committed in the context of financial ad ...

Identity card

The organization began enrollment exercise in September 2010 and started the issuance of a multipurpose card in 2013. The identity card issued in 2013 can be obtained by Nigerians aged sixteen or have lived in the country for two or more years at point of enrollment providing an identification document with a photograph such as a driver's license or an international passport. The ID card contains a National Identity Number, two photographs of the card holder, and a chip containing the biometric information of the holder. The commission also collaborated with MasterCard to add a prepaid element to the card and can be used as an

ATM card An ATM card is a payment card or dedicated payment card issued by a financial institution (i.e. a bank) which enables a customer to access their financial accounts via its and others' automated teller machines (ATMs) and to make approved point of ...

in MasterCard certified ATMs. NIMC Registration centre Sabon Tasha Kaduna

References

External links

Official website of the National Identity Management Commission
{{authority control Government agencies of Nigeria 2007 establishments in Nigeria Government agencies established in 2007 Nigerian identity