75% National ID Cards, Fake – NIMC

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), says 75 per cent of national identity cards currently in circulation are fake.

The Director, Information Technology/Identity Dababase, Engr Aliyu Azizi, who said this yesterday during a stakeholders’ forum organised by the commission in Port Harcourt, also noted that, 100 million Nigerians were without national identity cards.

Engr Azizi said that, because of the large concentration of activities in the urban areas, most people in the rural areas had suffered serious neglect in terms of registration.

Meanwhile, enrolment centres are to be established in local government headquarters before the third quarter of this year.

The Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Barrister Chris E. Onyemenam, who gave this indication at the forum, also said that the enrolment unit in Port Harcourt would be increased to six.

He said that while the previous efforts focused on issuance of identity cards, the commission this time around had introduced some parameters to ensure that the process was of international standard.

The director-general said that the forum was poised to create awareness on the importance of registration as national identity cards in the future would become the basis for all transactions in Nigeria.

Also speaking, the chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Interior, Hon. Umar Bature said that the scheme will help in crime control in the country.

Hon. Bature, who was represented by a member of the committee, Hon. Peter Ede, said that the situation would provide a database for national planning as well as ease the process of infrastructural management in the country, while facilitating the provision of other social services.