Problems Affecting National ID Card Registration

The new National Identity card registration has been ongoing for quite a long time now. The registration has also been made mandatory. However, there are several problems that are currently hindering the smooth flow of the process.

One of such problems is the delay and unnecessary stress that individuals experience from day to day in their attempts to register for the new National ID card.

First, when a person arrives at the office of the National Identity Management Commission, located in their Local Government council secretariat, where the registration is usually carried out, they would usually meet a crowd of people already gathered around the premises of the registration centre.

Then, if they manage to gain access to any of the NIMC’s officials and inquire about the requirements for registering for the new card, they are usually asked to go to a nearby business centre to get the registration form, or to visit a cybercafé, download and print the registration/enrolment form from the NIMC’s website, fill the form, and bring back to the registration centre, usually on a specified date.

Regarding this practice, some questions arise: Is the NIMC registration centre ordinarily not supposed to be responsible for issuing the hard-copy of the enrolment forms free-of-charge to those wishing to register?

Must those wishing to register for the National ID card have to go to a business centre or a cybercafé to get the enrolment form, at their own expense? All these contribute to the unnecessary stress and expense encountered by those seeking to register for the National ID card.

Then, on returning to the registration centre with the completed forms and other necessary documentation, one is asked to queue up, usually among a crowd of other people who have come for the same registration.

And usually, not everyone who spends precious time waiting in the queue is attended to eventually! People, including the elderly, can spend several hours waiting for their turn, or can even spend the whole day at the registration centre.

It has also been observed that the Bank Verification Number is usually requested when submitting one’s enrolment form. What about the people who do not have a bank account?

Will they be automatically denied the opportunity of registering for and getting the National ID card simply because they do not have or operate a bank account, and therefore have no BVN?

There have been stories of people who have been turned back, refused to be attended to, because they did not have a BVN. All of these make the process of registering for the National ID card difficult, stressful and frustrating!

Also, in this period of the coronavirus pandemic, many people are being exposed to unnecessary health risks, as they attempt to register for the card, especially with the crowd that is almost always found around the registration centres.

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There is usually a difficulty maintaining social distancing in those circumstances because of the usually small space that the NIMC office and its surroundings usually occupy, compared to the crowd that is usually present at the centres.

At times also, the registration centres experience some problems, such as electric power outage, problems with their generators, and even problems with their computer networks which sometimes make it difficult for them to access the data associated with the BVN numbers.

When these problems arise, they only add to the stress and frustrations of the people who have come for the registration!

Some, after they have waited in the queue, and standing for several hours, are even later asked to go back home, without having accomplished what they have waited so painfully and patently for.

These include even the elderly, who also have to stand in queues for long periods of time. Hours that should have been better utilised on more productive engagements have been wasted at the registration centres, and this may even have occurred on several days/occasions.