The National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, had announced to the public that National e-Identity Card will not be used as an alternative travelling document to the international passport .
Head, Card Management Service, NIMC, Mr. Tunji Durodola, had said the Commission cannot advocate for the use of the new national e-ID Card as a replacement or alternative to the international passport as the passport is an exclusive statutory responsibility of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).
Speaking further on the issue, Durodola said although one of the 13 applets found in the National e-ID Card has travel functionality for specified types of travels, it is the responsibility of the NIS to adopt the e-ID Card for travelling purpose.
“If and when it decides on this, the process can then be defined and implemented by the NIS which has the sole responsibility for migration management in Nigeria as the issuing authority for passport and travel documents in line with ICAO regulations.”
He further explained that the inclusion of the ICAO-Travel functionality in the e-ID Card, is to satisfy the ECOWAS requirement for cross country business travel with the ratification by NIS which also has the responsibility by law to provide international passport and related documents for citizens who wish to travel out of the country.
.“For any country to recognize the use of the National e-ID Card for cross-border travel, its usage must be the product of a bilateral agreement and NIS runs the show in that respect, we have only provided an early and appropriate means of achieving that so we do optimize the resources we have as is done in Europe. That’s all we did. For this to be possible, the Nigeria Immigration Service alone not even with NIMC, must approve the process.”
Mr Durodola added that the commission regrets the misconceived notion on the e-ID Card which in turn has led to a form of embarrassment to the Management of both NIMC and the NIS who have a history of cordiality management of the ongoing enrolment of Nigerian citizens.
“NIMC has enough on its hands; managing the central depository of a single version of truth on individuals identities in the country, to want to canvass the takeover of the statutory responsibility of another agency, he said
“We are mindful of the developments in the ECOWAS Region about national identity cards and just wanted to be ready ahead of time, but while informing and educating Nigerians on the use cases of the Card, we did not at any time say that the Card can be used as an alternative to the international passport; but it was necessary that Nigerians know it has an applet that can function as a travel document,” he added.
