Nigeria has decided to move on from the registration and production of plastic identity cards to the more convenient digital ID Cards, according to Rauf Aregbesola, Nigeria’s minister of interior.
Aregbesola said on Thursday after a brief meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Isa Pantami, minister of information and digital economy, and Aliyu A. Aziz, director-general of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
For those of us who've been using the NIMC slip and awaiting the plastic one for 10 years now.... You can now download this app at play store, access your original National ID with photo and print it whether on paper or plastic to yourself.... 🥂 🙂 #BBNaija pic.twitter.com/dkmP1uEt2A
— DR. MOHNICE 💉 (@Official_mohnyc) August 15, 2020
The meeting was held to look at the report of the Committee on Citizens Data Management and Harmonisation which was chaired by Aregbesola.
Speaking at a press briefing shortly after the meeting, the former governor of Osun State explained that under the new arrangement, individual DNA samples are also going to be be part of a citizen’s identification record, adding that the plastic ID Card will now only serve the mere purpose of convenience.
According to him, “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 noted.
Reacting to the new development, Aliyu A. Aziz, director-general of NIMC, said;
“So we have found that this card is strenuous, it is forex that is going out of the country and we are in 21st century and that is why we are focusing on national identification number and other identifications by other agencies have been linked to NIMC,” Aziz said.
