THE NATION
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) on Friday says Nigerians would have to pay for the new multipurpose national Identity card due to limited government revenue.
The NIMC Head of Card Management Services, Dr Peter Iwegbu, said this during a two-day round table event organised for online editors in Lagos.
Iwegbu said that the payment was to ensure that it was produced for only those who needed it.
According to him, the decision was made to avoid repeating the mistake of the past efforts to issue physical cards to Nigerians for free, which many Nigerians did not collect.
Iwegbu said that over two million cards were produced in a previous attempt for free by the NIMC, but many of them were uncollected to date.
“The government’s limited revenue is also a major factor in the decision to make Nigerians pay for the new ID card,” he said.
Iwegbu explained that the government could not fund the production of ID cards this time around.
Similarly, the Director of Information Technology at NIMC, Lanre Yusuf, said that the idea of a free national ID card did not turn out well in the past.
Yusuf said that the new ID card is 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.
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