Presidential Council Charged NIMC To Review NIN Charges
By Abdullahi Ahmad Bamalli
The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) has asked the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to address fees introduced for the integration and verification of National Identification Numbers (NIN), as it constitute an additional cost for passport applicants.
Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, Secretary of PEBEC and Special Adviser to the president on Ease of Doing Business, said in a statement that this will allow passport applicants to access government services faster and cheaper.
Oduwole praised the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) for significantly improving the quality, accuracy and speed of its passport services through NIN validation.
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She said NIS’s move was in response to the incessant difficulties Nigerians experienced in verifying their NIN during passport registration process.It was reported that NIMC introduced a new charge of N1,000 for NIN integration and verification for each Nigerian passport applicant, with effect from April 1.
However, the additional costs initiated by NIMC for each applicant’s passport were not well received by stakeholders, she noted.
”Furtherance to the provisions of the Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2022 (BFA), which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on February 8.
”Codifying Executive Order 001 on transparency and efficiency of public service delivery, for the purposes of the “One Government” directive, where an applicant requires service from a Ministry, Department or Agency (MDA).
”The MDA is however mandated to conduct the necessary verification or certification from relevant MDAs, in respect of the applicant,” Oduwole said.
On May 18, 2017, Executive Order 001 (EO1) on Transparency and efficiency was issued to strengthen the implementation of business climate reforms.
It was meant to also deepen collaboration among MDAs by instituting a systemic change management process for reforms.
EO1 mandates MDAs to submit monthly reports to the PEBEC Secretariat, the offices of the Head of Service (HOS) of the Federation, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), and SERVICOM.
On March 9, PEBEC released its 2022 Executive Order 001 (EO1) Compliance Report, in line with its promise to continuously track and keep the business community updated on the compliance with the Executive Order.
In the last six years, the council has consistently published an EO1 Compliance Report, which captures a periodic empirical analysis of the monthly reports received from MDAs.
The PEBEC, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, was established in July 2016 by Buhari to remove critical bottlenecks and bureaucratic constraints to doing business in Nigeria.
