Date: 2017-02-14

National Identity Management Commission has registered a total number of 306,660 people in Kwara State since its establishment in 2012.

The NIMC has also produced 10,683 smart cards for the state, while 7,613 of the cards have been issued to their respective owners.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Point, the state Coordinator of the commission, Mr. Habeeb Olumoh, said, "Our performance has been quite impressive, considering the constraint we had last year."

He added, "For record purpose, we have registered a total number of 306,660 people since the establishment of the Kwara office in 2012.

The commission has produced 10,683 smart cards and 7,613 cards have been issued to their rightful owners in the state.

"It will interest you to know that we have started registering from the 1-year-old, but preferably four years and above, and they must come with their parents.

These children will return to our office at 16 years for proper recapturing of their faces and filling of signature column."

Olumoh stressed that over 2,000 smart cards were still awaiting collection by the owners from the commission's office in the state.

"We have sent messages to some people like four times, but they have yet to respond. Though we acknowledged some people might have traveled out of the country and perhaps dead, among the number," he said.

According to him, the NIMC in the state had few challenges like poor supply of power for its operation and lack of cooperation by some local government chairmen.

The NIMC coordinator noted that the commission's headquarters had given directives for the state office to partner with communities and stakeholders to install registration centres in their domains.

"The commission has granted us autonomy to go into the communities so that they can take advantage of this process.

The reason being that most of the local governments are financially constrained. Such communities will be able to secure the personnel of the commission for smooth operations. We visited more than 10 communities across the state and they are ready to work with us," he said.

On the issue of some commercial banks rejecting NIMC slip for account opening and other transactions, the coordinator stressed that the commission was aware and that its headquarters was already discussing with the banks involved.

"Our attention has been drawn to banks' rejection of the slip and we have tabled it before our headquarters and we are informed that most of the banks are already complying," Olumoh said.