The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has expressed concern over the low figure of enrollment for the National Identification Number (NIN) in Jigawa State as only 35% of the residents are currently enrolled.
NIMC’s Coordinator for the State, Aminu Jakada, lamented the poor turnout of state residents in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday.
According to NIMC’s NIN database, the State’s enrollment for NIN stood at 2.6 million as of December 2023.
While Jigawa’s population is estimated at 7.5 million as of 2022, the enrollment figure shows that only 35% of the state’s residents have the NIN.
Jakada lamented that the people of the State only come out to enroll for the NIN whenever they need it for something important such as the registration for JAMB.
The NIMC coordinator appealed to traditional rulers in the state to assist the Commission in sensitizing their subjects to give priority to obtaining their identity numbers.
According to him, an aggressive campaign on the enrolment will speed up the registration of more citizens and legal residents in the state. Jakada particularly appealed to Dutse, Gumel, Ringim and Hadejia Emirate Councils to emulate the Kazaure emirate by establishing special NIN enrolment centres in their respective domains.
Meanwhile, the low NIN enrollment in Jigawa may also not be unconnected with the low penetration of mobile service in the State, thus reducing the need for NIN to link with SIMs.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), as of Q3 2023, active mobile subscriptions in the State stood at 2.9 million.
With 2.6 million NIN already issued in the State, almost all mobile users in the State may have already gotten the NIN to link with their SIMs as mandated by the Nigerian Communications Commission.