New national ID card single, NIMC clarifies

The National Identity Management Commission has revealed that the new national identity card is a single, multipurpose card and not three separate cards.

The Head of Corporate Communications at NIMC, Kayode Adegoke, disclosed this on Friday in a note titled “Key Facts About the Proposed New General Multipurpose National Identity Card”.

On April 5, the commission announced that it had collaborated with the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System to launch a new card with payment functionality for all types of social and financial services.

Part of the note read, “The new national ID card is a single, convenient, and general multipurpose card, eliminating the need for multiple cards—not three.

“The single GMPC has multiple use cases: payments/financial, government intervention/services, travel, etc.”

According to the commission, only applicants for the card will have to request it with their NIN through the self-service online portal, NIMC offices, or their respective banks.

It added that the card would be issued through the applicants’ respective banks in line with existing protocols for the issuance of debit and credit cards.

“The card can be picked up by holders at the designated centre or delivered to the applicants at the requested location at an extra cost to be borne by the applicants,” it stated.

Earlier, the commission disclosed that the card, which would be produced according to ICAO standards, was positioned as the country’s default national identity card.

According to NIMC, the card shall enable eligible persons, especially those who are financially excluded from social and financial services, to have access to multiple government intervention programmes.