The Federal Government has made the National Identity Number mandatory for opening bank accounts, payment of taxes, voter registration and other transactions for government services.
Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday when he hosted the newly elected National Executive Council of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria.
The minister said that the government was resolved to have all citizens of the country register and obtain their various NINs.
“This is most importantly in the area of NIN, which is a mandatory number, based on the NIMC order of 2007 that has actively been neglected for years.
“It is key to our national planning, budget, security, social development and many more. But it was neglected despite being a mandatory number.
“So, we’ve come up with so many policies trying to ensure that our citizens obtain the number. It is important beyond SIM registration. It is important for whatever you do because it is the primary identity of our citizens.”
He added that no identity would define “you as a citizen more than that number. It is mandatory. And it is mandatory for transactions such as opening bank accounts, paying tax, voter registration and many more.”
According to Pantami, Section 27 of the NIMC Act clearly stipulated that to partake and enjoy government services without the NIN was an offence that could attract imprisonment as stated in Section 29 of the same Act.
He, therefore, called on the operators in the sector to assist the efforts of the government to having all citizens obtain NIN.
The meeting came following operators in the industry urging the government to support in the development of a strategic plan to bridge the more than N15 trillion infrastructure funding gap for the telecoms/information communication and technology industry.