Don't Miss


Home   >   Business   >   Industries   >   NIMC begins evaluation exercise for local card manufacturing

NIMC begins evaluation exercise for local card manufacturing

By on February 20, 2015

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), a federal government agency responsible for production and issuance of the country’s national identity cards, has commenced the evaluation exercise that will help it take a crucial decision on the production and distribution of identity cards locally in Nigeria.

The decision to commence production of national identity cards in Nigeria, is to boost local content development as directed by the federal government.

Prior to now, NIMC had contracted the production of national identity cards to foreign firms like MasterCard, but it is currently considering involving local firms in Nigeria to be part of the production.

Based on the new development, NIMC had in January this year, carried out due diligence on some indigenous companies, and gave approval to six of them, including SecureID, and ePay Plus, to begin the process of expanding their facilities in preparation for the production of the country’s national identity cards in Nigeria.

General Manager, Corporate Communications for NIMC, Mr. Abdulhamid Umar, who confirmed the evaluation exercise, told THISDAY that the commission has begun the exercise and has  visited the six local companies to ascertain their state of readiness for the production of national identity cards in Nigeria. He said the exercise would enable the commission offer assistance and encouragement to the shortlisted companies, where necessary.

According to him, the distribution of the identity cards is ongoing across the 36 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, through the NIMC State Enrollment Centres adding that the commission has so far distributed several cards, running into hundreds of thousands.

He disclosed that NIMC has created additional 10 distribution centres in Abuja and Lagos, to facilitate the distribution exercise.

In order to involve the physically challenged, whose fingerprints cannot be captured for their biometric details, Umar said the commission has upgraded its software, to enable it register all physically challenged persons, irrespective of their state of deformity.

According to him, registration for the national identity card is still ongoing and advised those that are yet to register to do so at any of the NIMC enrollment centres closest to them.

“We have registered President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, we have also registered former President Olusegun Obasanjo and we just registered a former head of state, General AbdulsalamiAbubakar, and the registration exercise is ongoing,” Umar said.

 

[ThisDay]