This is as the Federal Executive Council, on Wednesday, approved a memo from the National Identity Management Commission allowing banks to print debit cards that double as National identity cards.

“It is going to be a form of multipurpose card where it will serve as your national identity card on one hand and also your bank card on the other hand, either MasterCard, Visa or any other kind of card,” the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, told State House Correspondents after Wednesday’s valedictory meeting of the Federal Executive Council at the Aso Rock Villa.

Pantami said although the NIMC Act 2007 only mandates Nigerians to have a National Identity Number and not necessarily a printout card, demands for cards have swelled nonetheless.

He explained that “As in the NIMC Act 2007, section 27, what is mandatory for our citizens and legal residents is the acquiring of the National Identity Number, not the card. However, the card is optional.

“But many citizens, particularly those living in rural communities, always go to NIMC offices complaining that they need the card at hand, even though it’s optional.

“To make it easier, NIMC last year, introduced a smart ID card you can download from the NIMC app. It is just a smart card. You don’t need to have it physically, but that is becoming difficult for our people living in rural communities.”

To ease the difficulty, Pantami said “NIMC has partnered with the Central Bank of Nigeria so citizens who are interested in having a card at hand can easily go to the relevant banks.”

“The bank is permitted to print the card along with either MasterCard or Visa card. It is going to be a form of multipurpose card that will serve as your national identity card on one hand and also your bank card on the other. And based on the agreement, it is without any additional costs on our citizens.

“So when you apply for a card at your bank, you can indicate that ‘I want this card to be multiple purpose whereby it will serve as my bank card and also my national identity card’. Both of them are going to be printed on the same card and it is going to serve the same purposes without any additional costs. So that memo has also been approved by the Federal Executive Council,” the minister said.

The minister revealed that the NIMC and the CBN signed a non-disclosure agreement to protect the privacy and confidentiality of card applicants.

“NIMC and the central bank signed a non-disclosure agreement where your privacy and your confidentiality must be respected in the course of providing the card for you.

“When you apply for the card, the bank will apply online to the NIMC through their database. When they verify and confirm that your record in the database is in alignment with your record in NIMC database, it will be permitted and the card is going to be printed for you immediately,” the outgoing minister told journalists.

In a similar vein, Pantami revealed that FEC okayed a memo proposing the deployment of an automated system to integrate NINs with individual SIM cards.

The system, according to him, is to consolidate the implementation of the NIN-SIM linkage.

He said “As we all know that previous administrations made efforts to verify NIN and SIM starting from 2011 without success. In February 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the implementation of the policy and the revised version of the policy was also launched and unveiled by Mr. President on May 6, 2021.

“As it stands today, the NIN and SIM policy registration is being implemented. In order to consolidate the implementation.

“The Nigerian Communications Commission came up with a proposal that will enhance the implementation of the policy and bring many more benefits to it.”

Pantami boasted that the automated system would sanitise the database and ease the process of SIM replacement for Nigerians or legal residents.

The post FG approves NIN, debit card merger appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

The minister made the announcement at a town hall meeting in Maiduguri, Borno state, on Thursday.

The meeting discussed ways to address the vandalism of power and telecommunications infrastructure.

In May, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) signed an agreement with the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat) on the use of the C-band spectrum for 5G services in the country.

Two weeks ago, the federal executive council (FEC) authorised the deployment of 5G networks for Nigeria’s digital economy.

The minister was represented by Ubale Maska, NCC commissioner for technical services.

He said that the 5G technology would boost surveillance against criminal elements vandalising public assets across the country, adding that other measures should be put in place to arrest them and bring them to book.

Pantami explained that the need to deploy the modern system was due to the over 50,000 telecommunications sites across the country and about 16,000 outages recorded by mobile network operators (MTN, Glo, Airtel, 9mobile) between January 2021 and July 2021.

He said the outages were caused by fibre cuts, access denial and theft, leading to service disruption in the affected areas.

He condemned situations where telecoms installations were destroyed in terrorist attacks which had not been replaced as a result of the intense security issues and tensions in north-east states.

Pantami asked the national assembly to speed up the passage of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill for onward submission to Muhammadu Buhari for assent.

The post FG to deploy 5G network by January 2022 – Pantami appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

Represented by Edward Dauda Kabir, General Manager, Monitoring and Compliance of NPA Abuja Liaison office said the kind gesture was to improve NIDCOM working capacity towards meeting its mandate.

Usman said being a responsible corporate organization, NPA is mindful of the need of sister agency and Commission.

Receiving the items, the elated NIDCOM boss, Abike Dabiri Erewa said that with the donation, NPA has made her day. “I have to thank my dear Sister, Hadiza Bala Usman for her thoughtfulness and kindness towards a sister MDAs in need. I am short of words. You have really made my day.

“This is very good news in the midst of a depressing week. I want to say a big thank you for your hands of fellowship. This goes to show that women do help themselves’, she said.

The NIDCOM boss expressed her appreciation to NPA under Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, the First lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Hajia Aisha Buhari and the Minister of Finance, Hajia Zainab Ahmed, for their hands of fellowship at the critical moment of the Commission.

Items donated were 20 Desktop Computers, 10 Laptops and 2 giant Sharp Photocopying Machines. In the same vein, the Nigerian Youth in the Diaspora through Dr Dauda Abdullahi of Nigerians in Diaspora Organization (NIDO) also donated to the commission 100 pieces of hand sanitizers wherein the Chairman of NIDCOM praised the Nigerian Youths in Diaspora for this giant stride.

It will be recalled that all the office equipment of NIDCOM were trapped in the office allocated to it at the NCC Annex on February 11, 2020 following a forceful ejection order from the agents of the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami in Abuja.

The post NPA donates computer accessories, office equipment to NIDCOM appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.