Isa Pantami,
minister of communications and digital economy, says the national
identification number (NIN) is compulsory for transactions such as bank account
opening, payment of taxes and voter registration.
Speaking in Abuja
on Thursday, he said the government is determined to ensure that all citizens
have NIN.
Pantami quoted
section 27 of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) act as stating
that benefitting from government services as a citizen without NIN is an
offence punishable by imprisonment.
“This is most
important in the area of NIN, which is a mandatory number, based on the NIMC
order of 2007 that has actively been neglected for years, ” he said.
“It is key to our
national planning, budget, security, social development and many more. But it
was neglected despite being a mandatory number.
“So we’ve come up
with so many policies trying to ensure that our citizens obtain the number. It
is important beyond SIM registration. It is important for whatever you do
because it is the primary identity of our citizens.
“There’s no
identity that will define you as a citizen more than that number. It is
mandatory. And it is mandatory for transactions such as opening bank accounts,
paying tax, voter registration and many more.”
The minister had
said the government may replace the bank verification number (BVN) with the
NIN.
There is
currently an April 6 deadline for all telecommunication network subscribers to
link their SIM cards with their NIN or get disconnected.
The Federal Road
Safety Corps (FRSC) recently announced that the NIN is compulsory for all
categories of vehicle registration.
