….. as State Coordinator Ogundare, salutes residents for making the exercise a success.
Adeola Olayemi
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Ekiti State office, has taken the National Identity Number (NIN) registration to wards across the state with a view to decentralize the exercise and allows citizens as well as residents to register.
The State Coordinator of the Commission Mr Taiwo Ogundare told the newsmen in Ado Ekiti on Thursday that the initiative was to make NIN registration easier and more accessible for everyone, especially people in rural and underserved areas.
According to him, the initiative known as NIMC Ward Enrollment Project (WEP) is a Presidential directive to the commission as part of the government’s effort to expand NIN registration in the country.
The Ekiti State Coordinator explained that the NIN remains a foundational requirement for accessing critical government services in Nigeria and encouraged those who have not yet enrolled to participate in the ongoing exercise.
He affirmed the Commission’s commitment to achieving inclusive identity coverage nationwide and urged all citizens and residents to take advantage of the ongoing enrolment drive.
“WEP is a nationwide effort by the commission to take NIN registration directly to ward-level communities across Nigeria, rather than only at large centralised centres.
“It is a strategic initiative, by President Bola Tinubu, which mandated NIMC to enroll all Nigerians on the National Identity Database, and ensure that Nigerians that are yet to be captured on the NIN are registered or enrolled on the database.
“Our targets are primarily the people that are not within the urban centre, because we want to take the enrollment of them. Even if they cannot afford transport.
“If they say because of distance they cannot come out, we are getting to areas that are very close to them. So that they can just come in and register,” he said.
The NIMC coordinator said that the exercise which commenced on Feb. 16 and expected to last for six weeks, would cover the entire 177 wards in the 16 local government areas in the state.
Ogundare stated that the commission’s target was to capture 95 per cent of the state residents within the six weeks.
The coordinator further explained that the commission collaborated with the front-end partners to carry out the enrollment on its behalf.
Ogundare saluted residents of the state for cooperating with officials of the Commission towards the success of the exercise.
According to him, the commission is collaborating with the National Orientation Agency to seriously sensitise the public on the initiative.
He implored religious leaders, community heads, local government chairmen and media organisations to assist in creating awareness about the initiative.
Ogundare, while underscoring the importance of the programme, emphasised that NIN is required for various services like UTME, SSCE/NECO registrations, banking, passport application, and future welfare schemes.
The NIMC boss in Ekiti further disclosed that many residents of the state have registered for NIN since the commencement of the programme in 2012.
He said that the appointment of the incumbent NIMC Director-General, Engr Dr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, had enhanced the productivity of the commission.
Ogundare said that NIN enrollment in the country, under her leadership had jumped to about 130 millions from 40 million registrants.
He appreciated the Director General for providing an enabling environment for officers to discharge their duties effectively especially in the ongoing registration exercise.