FG Set to Replace plastic ID cards for digital ID card

 

It has been disclosed that National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), alongside with the Federal government of Nigeria, has changed from card-based national identification and registration of citizens to strictly digital.

It was revealed that The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, had a meeting with President Buhari in the statehouse on 13 August.

The cause of the meeting was to submit the report of the Committee on Citizens Data Management and Harmonisation which was presided over by Aregbesola.

The Interior Minister said the new direction in citizen identification will the individual DNA samples, adding that the card-based would merely be for convenience.

“The card is just for convenience. The real thing is the number you have, with that number you are on the databank, everything about you is there. We are just upgrading it such that your DNA too will be there very soon.

Even if you are in a car, I will know if you are the one in the car with your DNA, it’s already captured. You are already captured, you cannot run away anymore” he explained.

Giving further explanation, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Pantami, said the attention of the program would no longer be cards’ production, but strengthening the digital platform.

“What the chairman is saying now is that we are no more talking about cards, the world has gone digital, so that card is no more. 

Our priority now is digital ID; it will be attached to your database wherever you are.

So if you can memorize it by heart, wherever you go that central database domiciled with NIMC will be able to provide the number and every of your data will be provided.

Now, our focus is no longer on producing cards, that card is only for record but what is important is that the digital ID and if you notice we have started using the digital ID on international passport. Once you have the digital ID but not the card, we are 100 percent done with you,” Pantami said.