For the first time in November 2024, Mr. Johnson saw the need to register his 14-year-old son to acquire the National Identification Number (NIN) because he would need it to register for his West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) exam coming up next year.
Having acquired his NIN sometime in 2021 through a harrowing experience that took him almost 24 hours at the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) office in Ikeja, he would not want to go through the same experience with his son.
A neighbour directed him to a nearby private enrolment vendor under the NIMCโs Front-End Partners (FEP) program. To his surprise, he was asked to pay N6,500 for the enrolment.
โAlthough I wasnโt expecting it to be free because I know thatโs a private business unlike the NIMC office where I enrolled for free in 2021, the charge was outrageous,โ he narrated.
According to him, if not because the NIN was made mandatory for his sonโs exam, he would have just zeroed his mind off the enrolment for his son. His search for a more affordable centre led him to the Agege Local Government secretariat, where he was charged N1,900.
โThe official insisted that the enrolment was free but the N1,900 was for the printing of the slip,โ he shared.
NIMC says enrolment is 100% free
Mr. Johnsonโs experience is far from unique. Across Nigeria, citizens report similar ordeals of enrolment agents charging arbitrary fees to get them captured for the NIN.
In some cases, the charges have forced those who have no urgent need for the NIN to return home without being captured.
But the NIMC is insisting that any charge for NIN enrolment across Nigeria is illegal as it is 100% free.
According to the Deputy Director/Head of Strategy & Program Office at NIMC, Dr. Alvan Ikoku, NIN enrolment within Nigeria is completely free and no vendor is expected to charge for it because they are being paid for every successful enrolment.
โIn Nigeria, NIN enrolment is free. If they charge you, or anyone that you know, please report to us; we are also looking for people to use as an example for others,โ he said.
โThey are paid for every enrolment. For those who go to hard-to-reach areas, they get paid slightly more because of the difficulties of going to those areas,โ Ikoku added.
He noted that only diaspora enrolments should attract charges and the charges are fixed.
Why FEPs charge
However, the FEPs on their part also have justification for charging Nigerians who want to acquire the national identity through them.
According to one of the enrolment vendors who spoke with our reporter under the condition of anonymity, charging is the only way they can continue to run the business and enrol more Nigerians.
He noted that though the contract with NIMC was clear that the Commission would pay for every enrolment submitted, the delays in payment by the NIMC necessitated the collection of fees from Nigerians who want to enrol.
โWe are a business with daily overheads. To start this, you first have to invest in the machines aside from the licence. NIMC promises to pay us, but you can ask them how often they pay? Many of us were owed for over two years until recently when we were paid part of it,โ he said.
โWe pay rent, pay electricity bill and buy printer ink and paper. Before, we used to charge between N1,000 and N1,500, but as prices of everything have gone up we have to increase the charges as well to sustain the business,โ he explained.
FEPS predicament taken to National Assembly
Earlier this month, the FEPs in a petition addressed to the Senate Committee Chairman on National Identity and National Population, Senator Abdul Ningi, seeking the National Assemblyโs intervention on NIMCโs refusal to pay the contractors for works done since 2022.
The CEO of File Solutions, Senator Ayodele Arise, who filed the petition, said his company expanded from managing IDP camps to over 1,000 enrolment centers, including agents who borrowed funds to acquire the necessary equipment.
โThese contractors faced initial technical challenges with Android devices, but they quickly adapted, integrating the devices for both SIM and NIN registrations,โ he said.
He noted that the agreement mandated that FEPs enrol Nigerians free of charge, with NIMC compensating them at $1.00 per enrolment. However, as operations commenced, the cost of providing the service exceeded the amount due to additional expenses like printing paper and toner.
NIMCโs response
Meanwhile, NIMC on Friday released a statement saying it has cleared all outstanding payments owed to the FEPs for the enrolments carried out between 2022 and 2024.
According to the statement issued by the Commissionโs Head of Corporate Communications, Kayode Adegoke, the payments were for all enrolments that successfully hit the database and generated the NINs.
Indicating that the new administration led by Coker-Odusote inherited the problem, NIMC in the statement pointed out that the FEPs were contracted in 2021 by the erstwhile administration through the former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy to scale up enrolment for the NIN.
โHowever, the FEPs were only paid for one year of enrollment activities,โ it added.
NIMC emphasised that the NIN Enrolment between 2021 and 2024 by the FEPs was a stop-gap measure approved by the erstwhile Minister of Communications and Digital Economy to scale up NIN enrolment pending the commencement of the World Bank/ID4D project.
Impact on the national ID project
The issues around ease of enrolment and charges by the FEPs who were licensed to make the process easier and less cumbersome have seen the countryโs national ID project move at a slow pace over the years.
Last month, the Director-General of the NIMC, Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote disclosed that the Commission had issued 115 million to Nigerians and legal residents in the country as of October 2024.
As of December 2023, the NIMC database showed that issued NINs stood at 104.16 million.
This indicates that despite the policies of the government mandating the use of the NIN for several services including international passports, driverโs licence, bank accounts, JAMB and WAEC examinations, and mobile SIM registration, among others, only about 10 million NINs were issued in the first 10 months of the year.
For a country whose population is estimated at over 220 million, the NIMC data infers that over 100 million Nigerians are still out of the identity system.
Under the World Bank-supervised National Identification for Development (ID4D) project, NIMC was expected to have issued NIN to 148 million Nigerians by the end of June 2024.
However, the countryโs failure to meet this target has seen the World Bank restructure and extend the project to June 2026.
Ways forward
Acknowledging that there are indeed challenges with the current operations of the FEPs, NIMC has pledged to address the issues plaguing the enrollment process.
To that effect, the Director of Information Technology and Identity Database at NIMC, Engr. Lanre Yusuf said the Commission would be embarking on a comprehensive review of the FEP framework to eliminate corruption and improve accountability.
โWe are committed to ensuring that NIN enrollment remains free for all Nigerians. Our goal is to build a transparent and efficient system that serves the public effectively,โ Yusuf stated.
Yusuf emphasized that the review would include measures to crack down on extortion by some FEP vendors, as well as efforts to expand NIMCโs operations to all local government areas and wards across the country.
However, for identity expert and the CEO of UrbanID Global Mr. Olatunji Durodola, the key thing is for the government to own the process and invest in infrastructure to accelerate enrolment.
โLet the process be led by the government, not by the interests of vendors,โ he said.
He said the NIMC would also need to tighten enrolment systems and retrain enrolment staff to achieve efficiency in the process and make it easier for Nigerians to get registered.
To leverage data collected by different agencies for the NIN database and end multiple collections of data by different government agencies suggest the establishment of an independent Government Cloud, which will create an enabling environment where all stakeholder agencies contribute to its evolution.
This report is produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.
