NIN enrolment is free but other services are not

The National Identity Management Commission, says National Identification Number holders are required to pay N15,000 to correct their dates of birth in the commission’s database.

NIMC Regional Coordinator, Funmi Opesanwo, stated this on Wednesday at the commission’s office in the Alausa area of Lagos State.

According to her, NIN holders are also required to pay a processing fee of N5,000 for card renewal or card replacement as well as an address modification fee of N500.

She said there are different services that the commission offers, noting that NIN enrollment is free but there are fees attached to card renewal, correction of date of birth, and change of address.

Opesanwo said, “For the date of birth correction, there is a processing fee of N15,000. For card renewal or card replacement, there is a processing fee of N5,000. For the modification of address or name, it is N500. So, people misconstrue this to mean that in NIMC they are asking them to pay money. No, those are for services.”

The NIMC official noted that the fees are payable to the Treasury Single Account of the Federal Government. “For correction of date of birth, it is N15,000 and it is payable to the TSA,” she added.

The Federal Government said telcos subscribers with NIN have January 19 as deadline to link their NIN with their SIM cards while subscribers without NIN have until February 9 to do so.

But network subscribers have complained that telcos have started blocking their SIM cards before the deadlines approved by the government.

Consequently, large crowds resurfaced at the NIMC centres nationwide on Wednesday after the New Year break.

Speaking on the large crowds that resurfaced on Wednesday, Opesanwo said, “When we came this morning, a lot of applicants complained that their SIM (cards) have been blocked and that is why we are experiencing this large number today.

“We are trying to manage the situation. Applicants have been seated and they came in for different services, so, there is no problem.

“We have to be mindful of the safety protocols and we cannot exceed the number of people, the capacity that we can take, we have to adhere to the guidelines.”

As of October, the total number of mobile network connections was 207.58 million, but currently, only 43 million Nigerians have NIN, thus 164 million telephone users are at the risk of being deactivated.