The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) certified registration agents are contributing to the expansion of National Identification Number (NIN) enrolment across the country.
Dr Kayode Adegoke, Head of Corporate Communication, NIMC said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Abuja on Wednesday.
Adegoke said the agents, also known as Front-End Partners (FEPs), were helping to take enrolment services closer to Nigerians, particularly those in rural, underserved and diaspora communities.
Adegoke explained that the partners were important to the commission’s efforts to achieve its mandate, considering the challenges of reaching every local government area, ward and village through its existing enrolment centres.
“NIMC’s primary mandate is to create and manage a centralised, secure National Identity Database.
“Because our physical offices cannot efficiently cover every local government area, ward and village, licensed private vendors and partner government agencies bridge the gap,” he said.
He also explained that the partners provided infrastructure and biometric data collection services, which helped to extend enrolment to rural, underserved and diaspora populations.
On the number of certified agents currently operating, Adegoke said the commission regularly reviewed its partnerships through revalidation exercises to ensure that only approved operators remained in the system.
“Following sweeping reforms to curb extortion and data manipulation, NIMC streamlined its partnerships.
“There are several dozen macro-licenced companies, which deploy hundreds of verified field agents and terminal capture points across the country,” he said.
He revealed that the commission had partnership with the Ministry of Youth Development and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to train and deploy corps members for grassroots enrolment across political wards.
Adegoke said the activities of the partners had contributed to the growth of Nigeria’s national identity database, which currently had over 142 million enrolments, according to official NIMC figures.
He noted that while the partners handled a significant part of the enrolment process, NIMC offices also concentrated on regulation, database integrity, data modifications and other complex identity management services.
Speaking on how the agents were trained and monitored, the head of corporate communication of NIMC said they were required to undergo training on biometric capture, data privacy and the use of the commission’s enrolment software before being granted access to the system.
He said the commission also monitored their activities through its backend systems, while biometric information submitted by agents was subjected to automated checks to identify duplicate records and poor-quality captures.
“Data captured by agents does not bypass NIMC. It is securely transmitted to the central database, where automated checks, like the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), screen for duplicates or poor-quality captures,” he said.
Adegoke added that agents who violated the commission’s operational guidelines, particularly through extortion and data manipulation, could have their access credentials revoked, while their parent companies could also lose their licences.
He explained that NIMC could refer such operators to law enforcement agencies, including the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for prosecution.
On the activities of illegal enrolment operators, Adegoke said the commission had continued to intensify efforts to check the activities of business centre operators posing as authorised NIN agents.
According to him, some of these illegal operators collect excessive charges from Nigerians, print fake NIN slips and sometimes collect personal information for fraudulent purposes.
He urged Nigerians to verify enrolment centres through the commission’s official website and avoid patronising unauthorised operators, stressing that initial NIN enrolment remained free.
He also advised citizens to make use of NIMC’s approved digital self-service platforms for eligible data modifications and verification services rather than relying on unauthorised third-party operators.
By Chinedu Anolue
