The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has announced that going forward, Nigerians will have to pay for the new multipurpose national identity card.
It said the federal government took the decision due to limited government revenue.
Head of card management services at NIMC, Peter Iwegbu, who disclosed this at a conference in Lagos, said paying for the identity card would ensure it is produced for only those who needed it.
He further explained that the decision was to avoid repeating the mistake of past efforts to issue physical cards to Nigerians for free, which many did not collect.
According to Iwegbu, over two million cards were produced in a previous attempt to issue free national ID cards by the commission but many of them havd not been collected till date.
“Before we stopped due to funding, we produced more than two million cards but a lot of them are still in our office, people were not able to pick them up because they didn’t need it,” Iwegbu said.
He further noted that apart from the issue of low collection, the government could not fund the production of ID cards due to limited revenue.
Iwegbu also said the NIMC is working with banks across the country, which will make it possible for people to walk into any bank closest to them and request the card.
Elaborating on the issue, Lanre Yusuf, director of information technology at NIMC, said the idea of a free national ID card did not turn out well in the past.
Yusuf described the new ID card as a post-paid identity card, which means that individuals must need the card before initiating a request for it.
“To get the new national ID card, Nigerians will need to make a payment, select a pickup location, and then collect their card from the chosen location,” the director said.
“The government has implemented programmes to make the card accessible to the less privileged Nigerians who cannot afford it but require it to access government support.
“This initiative demonstrates the government’s commitment to inclusivity and equality,” he added.
Yusuf also said the multipurpose ID cards are expected to launch soon, with sample test cards already received.
“The new national ID card is a multipurpose card that can serve the purpose of identity verification, payments, and even government services,” he said.
