NIMC ACT

This Act repeals the National Civic Registration Act, Cap. 240, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990 and establishes a National Database for the country and the National Identity Management Commission.

The Committee on Harmonisation of National Identity Cards was set up by His Excellency, President Olusegun Obasanjo, to review existing ID card projects and recommend ways of integrating them into a single multi-application card. The Committee’s findings and recommendations are expected to compliment the efforts of the Committee on Consumer Credit, which was set-up to look at ways of establishing consumer credit system and infrastructure in Nigeria.

The Consumer Credit Committee had earlier identified the absence of a unified and verifiable identity database as a negating factor to the development of consumer credit system in the country.

At the inaugural meeting of the Committee held on 6th September 2005, Members were constituted into three Sub-Committees; Technical, Legal and Implementation to thoroughly address the Committee’s Terms of Reference. The Sub-Committees held several meetings in which global best practices were examined and countries’ experiences were reviewed.

The Sub- Committees’ reports were presented to the main Committee and these were deliberated upon, edited and adopted.

The Committee found that the global trend is a gradual move from a single purpose card to a more secure multi-application smart card. Accordingly, the Committee recommends the creation of a new National Identity Database, which will serve as a central source of identity verification.

The Database will be connected to existing databases that are relevant to the identification of citizens and residents.

The connectivity between the various databases, government departments and law enforcement agencies will be enhanced by the use of chip-based General Multipurpose Card (GMPC) technology, which allows for input of several applications on one card