NIMC establishes 70 enrolment centres in Kano State

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has established no fewer than 70 enrolment centres in Kano State.

The NIMC Coordinator in the state, Mr Mohammed Auwal-Sanusi, told our reporter in Kano on Monday that the enrolment centres, including the temporary ones, were increased from 50 to 70 as part of renewed efforts to facilitate the operation of the commission in the state.

“The temporary enrolment centres give our staff the opportunity to deploy their mobile kits and stay at the centres for one or two weeks before leaving the place,” he said.

He said establishing additional registration centres was necessary so as to reduce the hardship being encountered by residents, especially those living in remote areas of the state, in reaching the designated enrolment centres.

According to him, the additional centres will give all Kano residents the opportunity to be enrolled into the National Identity Database and issued with the National Identification Number (NIM).

The commission had also established some special enrolment centres at places where there is a concentration of people like Bayero University Kano (BUK), Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kwari textile market and Murtala Mohammed Hospital, he said.

He said the commission was looking into the possibility of collaborating with the Kano State Government to register and enrol especially final year students who must use the National Identification Number to register for JAMB examinations.

“The collaboration with the state government is in the process. This will enable us to go schools in order to get the students enrolled to make it easy for them to register for the JAMB examinations,” he said.

He called on the media to continue to support the commission through massive public awareness on the importance of the National Identification Number to encourage residents to come and obtain the number.

On challenges, the coordinator said inadequate funding remained the major obstacle hindering the smooth operation of the commission as it required no less than N150 billion to enable it implement the project successfully.

“Inadequate funding is the major challenge of the commission. When the present Director-General took over in 2015, he did mention that the N7 billion budget of the commission was grossly inadequate to enable it implement the project.

“According to the DG, the commission requires N150 billion to meet up with the number of its demands,” he added.