Nigerians will now be required to pay for the new multipurpose national identity cards, following an admission by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) that the government is unable to fund the production.
The decision, made public on Thursday at a press conference in Lagos, is expected to ensure that only those who truly need the card will receive it.
Peter Iwegbu, the head of card management services at NIMC, highlighted that the government’s strained revenue resources made it impractical for the state to bear the cost of the cards.
Iwegbu also noted that the move was a lesson from previous efforts to issue free national IDs, which resulted in over two million uncollected cards.
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“The previous attempt to distribute free National ID cards saw over two million cards produced, but many of them were never collected,” Iwegbu said.
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Lanre Yusuf, the director of information technology at NIMC, also weighed in, noting that the prior attempt at free issuance of cards had been ineffective and led to significant waste. He explained that the new national ID will be a post-paid service, meaning Nigerians must request and pay for the card before receiving it.
“To get the new national ID card, Nigerians will need to make a payment, select a pickup location, and collect their card,” Yusuf said. “This approach ensures that people only pay for the card if they genuinely need it.”
Despite the cost, Yusuf reassured that the government is implementing measures to assist the less privileged, who would be supported to access the card for essential government services.
