By Chidi Ugwu
The Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC) plans to establish centres in all 889 wards across the country to ensure accessibility for all Nigerians irrespective of locality, Rhoda Jackden- Nime, the Deputy Director/Head, Human Capital Management Department, has disclosed.
Jackden- Nime, who gave the hint during a panel discussion at the just concluded 2-day roundtable discussion with online publishers which held in Abuja weekend, said the Commission has centres across the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.
According to her, further spread to all the 889 wards across the nation would allow for easy access for Nigerians and legal residents in the country.
“Our plans to have centres across all the wards across the country” she said.
Also, the Director Card Management Services Department of NIMC, Peter Iwegbu, said that NIMC is putting finishing touches to roll out special cards for senior citizens above 60 years in the country in order to cater for the elderly in the society.
The card, which is likely to be flagged off in the first quarter of 2025 will entitle senior citizens to have access to unique services and special privileges.
According to him, the Director General/CEO of NIMC, Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, has carried out review and addressed the challenges stalling issuance of cards since she assumed office a year ago.
Speaking on the General Multipurpose Card at the workshop themed ‘Building Formidable Bridges With The Digital Media Ecosystem’, he said “Special cards are to be issued to senior citizens to access unique services and privileges.
We are working on that. We are working with the Senior Citizens Centre.”
He also disclosed that another card that will be rolled out in the first quarter of 2025 is the ones to the low and vulnerable in the society, through which palliatives can be passed to them.
NIMC, he said, is working with about 20 agencies and other stakeholders in that direction.
The Director also disclosed that there are presently 2 million processed cards uncollected by Nigerian across the country.
“Some of them did not request for the cards. We produced them from our database.
Some of them have also relocated from where they were registered and captured.
“But the new cards are now based on request,” he stated.
Answering question on fraudulent and bad eggs in NIMC, Mr. Iwegbu explained that everyone that is employed in NIMC goes through security checks.
Not completely ruling out bad eggs in the system, he said that NIMC has a mechanism in place to tackle such people.
“Be rest assured that you are in safe hands, the system is safe, cards and data are being updated regularly.” he said
Speaking further on the cards for senior citizens, the Assistant Director, Operations Dept of NIMC, Akwitti O. Akwitti, disclosed that the database showed that there is 5.8 million Nigerians that presently fall into the category of senior citizens in Nigeria.
He broke the figure down to 2.3 million female and 3.5 million male.
But he said the total figure is not stagnant as it keeps increasing by the day.
Highlighting the key milestones in NIMC under Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote in the last one year, Olusola Ogunrawaye, said a lot of the NIMC system and services which had been used over ten years ago have been made functional by the DG.
NIMC in the last one year, he noted, also had injection of new systems that were distributed nationwide.
These, he said, have enabled the Commission to render good services to Nigerians.
Apart from the self-service modification platform working fine for Nigerians to easily access, he said, there are renovation of offices, upgrades to include biometrics and realignment of operational structures.
He said that a robust customer care service is now in place with double capacity to respond quickly to enquiries on the various social media platforms.
