For the first time in November 2024, Mr. Johnson saw the need to register his 14-year-old son to acquire the National Identification Number (NIN) because he would need it to register for his West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) exam coming up next year.
Having acquired his NIN sometime in 2021 through a harrowing experience that took him almost 24 hours at the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) office in Ikeja, he would not want to go through the same experience with his son.
A neighbour directed him to a nearby private enrolment vendor under the NIMC’s Front-End Partners (FEP) program. To his surprise, he was asked to pay N6,500 for the enrolment.
“Although I wasn’t expecting it to be free because I know that’s a private business unlike the NIMC office where I enrolled for free in 2021, the charge was outrageous,” he narrated.
According to him, if not because the NIN was made mandatory for his son’s exam, he would have just zeroed his mind off the enrolment for his son. His search for a more affordable centre led him to the Agege Local Government secretariat, where he was charged N1,900.
“The official insisted that the enrolment was free but the N1,900 was for the printing of the slip,” he shared.
Mr. Johnson’s experience is far from unique. Across Nigeria, citizens report similar ordeals of enrolment agents charging arbitrary fees to get them captured for the NIN.
“In Nigeria, NIN enrolment is free. If they charge you, or anyone that you know, please report to us; we are also looking for people to use as an example for others,” he said.
“They are paid for every enrolment. For those who go to hard-to-reach areas, they get paid slightly more because of the difficulties of going to those areas,” Ikoku added.
He noted that only diaspora enrolments should attract charges and the charges are fixed.
However, the FEPs on their part also have justification for charging Nigerians who want to acquire the national identity through them.
“We are a business with daily overheads. To start this, you first have to invest in the machines aside from the licence. NIMC promises to pay us, but you can ask them how often they pay? Many of us were owed for over two years until recently when we were paid part of it,” he said.
“We pay rent, pay electricity bill and buy printer ink and paper. Before, we used to charge between N1,000 and N1,500, but as prices of everything have gone up we have to increase the charges as well to sustain the business,” he explained.
Earlier this month, the FEPs in a petition addressed to the Senate Committee Chairman on National Identity and National Population, Senator Abdul Ningi, seeking the National Assembly’s intervention on NIMC’s refusal to pay the contractors for works done since 2022.
The CEO of File Solutions, Senator Ayodele Arise, who filed the petition, said his company expanded from managing IDP camps to over 1,000 enrolment centers, including agents who borrowed funds to acquire the necessary equipment.
“These contractors faced initial technical challenges with Android devices, but they quickly adapted, integrating the devices for both SIM and NIN registrations,” he said.
“These contractors faced initial technical challenges with Android devices, but they quickly adapted, integrating the devices for both SIM and NIN registrations,” he said.
He noted that the agreement mandated that FEPs enrol Nigerians free of charge, with NIMC compensating them at $1.00 per enrolment. However, as operations commenced, the cost of providing the service exceeded the amount due to additional expenses like printing paper and toner.
Meanwhile, NIMC on Friday released a statement saying it has cleared all outstanding payments owed to the FEPs for the enrolments carried out between 2022 and 2024.
“However, the FEPs were only paid for one year of enrollment activities,” it added.
NIMC emphasised that the NIN Enrolment between 2021 and 2024 by the FEPs was a stop-gap measure approved by the erstwhile Minister of Communications and Digital Economy to scale up NIN enrolment pending the commencement of the World Bank/ID4D project.
The issues around ease of enrolment and charges by the FEPs who were licensed to make the process easier and less cumbersome have seen the country’s national ID project move at a slow pace over the years.
However, the country’s failure to meet this target has seen the World Bank restructure and extend the project to June 2026.
Acknowledging that there are indeed challenges with the current operations of the FEPs, NIMC has pledged to address the issues plaguing the enrollment process.
To that effect, the Director of Information Technology and Identity Database at NIMC, Engr. Lanre Yusuf said the Commission would be embarking on a comprehensive review of the FEP framework to eliminate corruption and improve accountability.
“We are committed to ensuring that NIN enrollment remains free for all Nigerians. Our goal is to build a transparent and efficient system that serves the public effectively,” Yusuf stated.
Yusuf emphasized that the review would include measures to crack down on extortion by some FEP vendors, as well as efforts to expand NIMC’s operations to all local government areas and wards across the country.
However, for identity expert and the CEO of UrbanID Global Mr. Olatunji Durodola, the key thing is for the government to own the process and invest in infrastructure to accelerate enrolment.
“Let the process be led by the government, not by the interests of vendors,” he said.
He said the NIMC would also need to tighten enrolment systems and retrain enrolment staff to achieve efficiency in the process and make it easier for Nigerians to get registered.
To leverage data collected by different agencies for the NIN database and end multiple collections of data by different government agencies suggest the establishment of an independent Government Cloud, which will create an enabling environment where all stakeholder agencies contribute to its evolution.