According to the Federal Government, Nigerians can now ask their commercial banks to offer them a debit card that also serves as their country’s NIN identity card.
Prof. Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, revealed this on Wednesday in Abuja. He claimed there was no charge for this issue.
President Muhammadu Buhari presided over the Federal Executive Council meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, where Pantami announced that approval was granted.
He claimed that after receiving permission from the National Identity Management Commission, banks may now issue dual-purpose debit cards that also serve as national identification cards.
The Minister gave the clarification that,
“It is going to be a form of the multipurpose card where it will serve as your national identity card on one hand and also your bank card on the other hand, either Mastercard, Visa or any other kind of card.”
Pantami claims that despite the fact that the NIMC Act 2007 only requires Nigerians to have a National Identity Number and not necessarily a printed card, demand for cards has increased.
“As in the NIMC Act 2007, section 27, what is mandatory for our citizens and legal residents is the acquiring of the National Identity Number, not the card. However, the card is optional.
“But many citizens, particularly those living in rural communities, always go to NIMC offices complaining that they need the card at hand, even though it’s optional.
“To make it easier, NIMC last year, we introduced a smart ID card you can download from the NIMC app. It is just a smart card. You don’t need to have it physically, but that is becoming difficult for our people living in rural communities.”
Pantami explained that NIMC and the Central Bank of Nigeria have cooperated to make things easier “so that citizens interested in having a card at hand can easily go to the relevant banks.”
He claims that the bank has the right to produce the card alongside a Mastercard or Visa card.
“It is going to be a form of multipurpose card that will serve as your national identity card on one hand and also your bank card on the other. And based on the agreement, it is without any additional costs on our citizens.
“So when you apply for a card at your bank, you can indicate that ‘I want this card to be multiple purposes where it will serve as my bank card and also my national identity card’.
“Both of them are going to be printed on the same card and it is going to serve the same purposes without any additional costs.”
The Minister said that NIMC and the CBN had signed a nondisclosure agreement to safeguard the privacy and confidentiality of card applicants. He guaranteed the security and confidentiality of cardholder information.
In addition, Pantami said that the bank would need to establish a connection with the NIMC via its database when a customer requests a card.
According to him, the bank would confirm the individual’s information after that, and it must match the record in the NIMC database. A printer will then produce the card immediately for the user.
The Minister said that the FEC had also approved a document that called for implementing an automated mechanism to link NINs to specific SIM cards.
He pointed out that the technology will streamline the NIN-SIM linkage implementation.
In his words,
“As we all know that previous administrations made efforts to verify NIN and SIM starting from 2011 without success.
“In February 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the implementation of the policy and the revised version of the policy was also launched and unveiled by Mr President on May 6, 2021.
“As it stands today, the NIN and SIM policy registration is being implemented. In order to consolidate the implementation.
“The Nigerian Communications Commission came up with a proposal that will enhance the implementation of the policy and bring many more benefits to it”.
According to Pantami, the automated approach would clean up the database and make it simpler for Nigerians or authorized residents to update their SIM cards.
cc: Punch Ng
