The Director, Southeast Territorial, and Head, NIMC Ward-level Drive, has said NIMC has announced a new grassroots strategy aimed at eliminating long queues and expanding NIN registration to rural, hard-to-reach, and underserved communities across the region.
Chigbo said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, where she discussed the NIMC’s expansion of its enrollment system to all wards across Nigeria.
“Those in rural areas deserve to register and obtain their NIN because they need access to services like social intervention programs, healthcare, and financial inclusion. The gaps we currently have are in enrollment in rural areas, hard-to-reach areas, and extending enrollment to vulnerable and underserved populations. Those are the targets for our ward-level enrollment”, she said.
Director Chigbo also noted that the NIMC is using approved agents, (front-end partners) to register people instead of relying only on government offices.
“NIMC has licensed front-end partners who do data capture on behalf of the Commission. We are leveraging them for ward-level enrollments. They have the capacity to go into every nook and cranny of the federation. They are helping us decongest the queues mostly found in urban areas.”
Addressing the issue of illiteracy among people in rural areas, Chigbo said the NIMC is addressing digital illiteracy through grassroots engagement and local-language communication, while dismissing claims of political motives behind the ward-level expansion.
“We understand stakeholder engagement is critical. We are collaborating with the National Orientation Agency, (NOA) to reach the grassroots. We work with traditional rulers, ward leaders, community leaders, and faith-based organizations to ensure everyone understands the importance of the NIN.
“Communicating in languages people understand is key, so we have jingles and focus groups in local languages. Regarding the political connotation, NIMC has been doing enrollment since 2012. It’s our day-to-day job, Monday to Friday, all year round. We maintain offices in all state capitals and all 774 local government areas. We are simply expanding to the wards to bring identity closer to the people and bridge barriers related to distance and logistics”, she explained.
Addressing concerns over double registration for NIN by individuals across Nigeria, Chigbo said NIMC’s enrolment system captures and verifies personal information while preventing fraud.
“The system is designed so that we capture demographic and biometric information. There are exception handlings for people like amputees who don’t have fingerprints, for them, biometrics are not required. Cases of double NIN could only occur if someone is trying to exploit the system as an ‘amputee’ where biometrics aren’t captured a second time. However, NIMC does extensive data cleansing and re-validates every record. Biometrics of adults are cross-checked against every existing record”, she explained.
Speaking on reports of a duplicate NIN, Director Chigbo said:
“Well, this is a new or strange case that I’m just hearing about. I would like to have access to that report so we can sit with those who conducted it and do a thorough review.”
Favour Odima.
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