By Funmilayo Adeyemi

The Citizen Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights (CASER) has advised the Federal Government on the need for financial support to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) for effective planning.

The Executive Director of CASER, Frank Tietie made this known at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday.

Tietie said that the support was needed, saying that beyond the management of identity and helping security agencies with data, the commission could help in specific and accurate policy implementation.

“As an advocacy organisation, we are driven by our social responsibilities to support government agencies for the purpose of achieving fundamental objectives of government policies.

“We have emphasised the role of NIMC to development and in the improvement of living standards of Nigerians.

“We believe that if NIMC will be able to carry out its functions and giving the needed financial support, it will be easier to have data for the purpose of economic planning and lives will be better for Nigerian citizens,” he said.

Tietie explained that lack of data was responsible for the basic problems of the country as it affects the social and financial inclusion of the citizenry.

According to him, NIMC is strategic to the wellbeing of Nigerians and because of this, the government should give the commission the necessary resources for it to work optimally.

“Having done our assessment, we have identified NIMC as being strategic to development and if we reposition this commission, 50 per cent of our problems will be addressed.

“Also, the current management of the commission has shown commitment in working with the best technology which are top notch technologies to address the security problems.

”Over 100 million Nigerians have been registered and over 30 million Nigerians have been issued the card,” Tietie said.

He said nothing must stop NIMC from going ahead in its functions for the improvement of living standards of the people.

Speaking on the multiplicity of data collected by various government agencies, Tietie said that Section 2 of the NIMC Act, 2007 has mandated the commission to be responsible for the collection of data.

He said that the commission has the mandate to establish, maintain and manage the national identity database of the country and should be made to carry out its functions. (NAN)