In concordance with the Federal Government’s data harmonization policy, applicants for the Nigerian international passport will from this week be required by immigration authorities to have the National Identification Number (NIN) before being issued passports.
According to reports, all new passports would be linked and synchronized with individuals’ NIN.
The government is working towards building its database on all citizens for enhanced economic planning hence this new move. The NIN consists of 11 non- intelligible numbers randomly chosen and assigned to an individual at the completion of enrolment into the National Identity Database (NIDB) managed by the National Identification Management Commission (NIMC).
By law, under the NIMC Act No 23 of 2007, all citizens and residents must have the NIN to conduct ID based transactions.
Last year the NIMC made it clear it would by the first quarter of 2019 begin the enforcement of the law that makes it mandatory to have the NIN to conduct transactions that are bank-based, online e-commerce-based) and even acquisition of international passports among others.
With the new directive by the immigration authorities on the acquisition of an international passport, it would mean that the government has effectively begun the implementation of its data harmonization policy.
Last year, the government had set up an Inter-Ministerial Committee to oversee the process of harmonizing data collection and evaluation to end data duplicity, and multiple data capturing exercises across federal Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs)
Agencies who have their own separate biometric data gathering are Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
Others are National Pension Commission (NPC), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the National Population Commission (NPC), telecom service providers and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, among others.
The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammad Babandede said, “Nigeria is headed for one identity for every individual; so, everyone’s identity has to be the same, from the bank to the NIN. It will be significant for our national security and development.
“Based on the president’s directive, we have committed to linking up with the National Identity Management Commission to ensure that henceforth, when filling your passport details, you must produce your NIN number …. If we had done this a long time ago, it would have been easy for us to do a whole lot of other things as a nation. So now, it will be no NIN, no passport.
Nigeria will follow the paths of countries like USA, Canada, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, EU countries and several others who have harmonized their database to impact successfully on citizens engagements, crime detection, and prevention as well as economic development.
According to reports, with the harmonization process completed the citizen’s data will be harmonized so that the bank verification number (BVN), immigration details, prison records, police data, and others from all MDAs will emerge as one single accessible data on an individual.
Babandede also noted that immigration authorities are working closely with the NIMC to ensure that all eligible citizens can have their NIN.
He said, “We have also provided office space for NIMC in all our establishments nationwide. We are glad to also invite NIMC to all our foreign missions.”
