The number of Nigerians that have registered for the National Identity Card has hit over 100 million, according to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.
The minister said the NIN enrolment expanded by over 61 million in less than three years, adding that the registration did not cost the federal government a dime.
According to him, the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, was supported during the registration by some tech companies in the country as part of their Corporate social responsibility, CSR.
The data of Nigerians in the NIMC database before October 20 was barely 30 million, the minister said while unveiling 4366 Digital Economy pojects executed under the supervision of his ministry on Thursday in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
“ Pantami was directed to supervise, from Oct. 2020 to May 2023, which is 2 years & 7 months, and the enrolment was increased by more than 61 million. Now over 100 million citizens are in the database,” the minister said.
Pantami who commissioned digital economy projects in Yobe, Oyo, Niger, Lagos, Bauchi, Enugu, and Abuja said unprecedented projects have been executed under his leadership since he became minister in 2019.
Part of his achievements, he said, includes the increment of the number of valid policies from 1 to 23, 4G coverage increased from 23 percent to 80.86 percent, and 5G was also launched in Nigeria.
He added that the Information and Communications Technology, ICT), sector recorded unprecedented contribution to the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, of the Nigerian economy under his watch.
These achievements, according to him have been verified by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, FCDO, and KPMG.
