From Nabob Ogbonna, Abakaliki
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) operating in Ebonyi State and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) have reached a consensus to jointly drive the mass enrollment of residents in the state for the National Identification Number (NIN).
The agreement was reached on Monday when Dr. Kelechi Okezie, founder of Neighborhood Environmental Watch (NEW), led members of various CSOs on a visit to the Ebonyi State office of the National Identity Management Commission.
According to Okezie, “The purpose of this visit is to rub minds with you to understand your areas of challenge and explore how Civil Society Organizations can assist in enrolling residents into the national NIN database.
“We are concerned by reports indicating that Ebonyi ranks second from the bottom on the National Identification Number (NIN) registration table.
“Even in the political space today, politicians ask their supporters to present their NIN. It is now widely used, and we are worried that no Ebonyian should be disenfranchised due to failure to enroll.
“We want to understand your challenges and identify areas where we can partner with you to address them, especially concerning cases where applicants are required to make payments for registration.
“This development is not encouraging for the state. Ebonyi is known for leading in the South-East and beyond, but in this case, the state ranks second from the bottom on the NIN enrollment table,”he said.
Responding, the State Coordinator of NIMC, Mr. Iwuchukwu Okeke, identified inadequate facilities and insufficient NIN enrollment agents as major challenges contributing to the low registration rate essentially at the rural areas.
“As we speak, we do not have enough laptops to register applicants, although laptops are currently not in use for enrollment.
“The biometric registration device is portable and mainly used by field agents to register applicants in remote locations and upload data once there is network connectivity. Unfortunately, we do not have enough of these devices here.
“Another challenge is that although registration is free, some agents who are not commissioned by NIMC collect money from applicants. However, we are using this opportunity to appeal to the state governor to provide more support,” he stated.
