President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday asked the National Population Commission (NPC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to harmonise the country’s national identity database and population for effective socio-economic planning and development.
He hailed the NIMC and other stakeholders for the capturing of more than 63 million Nigerians in NIMC’s database within a short period at over 8,000 centres across the country.
The President urged the NIMC and other stakeholders to redouble their efforts so that his administration would have a National Identity database before the end of his tenure in 2023.
President Buhari spoke at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Abuja at an event organised by the NIMC to celebrate the nation’s third National Identity Day.
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The President was represented by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami.
He also unveiled NIMC Mobile ID App, Contactless Enrolment Solution and another platform called Tokenisation.
The event was halted temporarily as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, became unwell while delivering a speech on the achievements of his agency.
As soon as he stood on the podium, the EFCC boss said his address would have been a long one, given the importance of National Digital Identity, but promised to cut it short because of the death of a senior staff member of the agency in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Bawa said he would be heading to Ibadan after the event in Abuja.
Suddenly, his expression became a bit contorted and he rubbed his face momentarily as if to control the apparent dizziness that appeared on it. The EFCC boss tried to control his poise but it appeared he was about to fall.
He left the podium in haste and sat down where some of the guests attended to him before he was reportedly conveyed to a hospital for treatment.
