NIMC boss retires, acting DG urged to clear NIN bottlenecks

By Abubakar Yunusa

President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday directed the Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission, Aliyu Aziz, to embark on a 90-day pre-retirement leave.
A statement from the Presidency also noted that Tinubu approved the immediate appointment of Bisoye Coker-Adesote as the new DG of the agency.
This move, according to the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers, may usher a breath of fresh air into the national identity space. They noted that NIMC has been besieged by many issues that have proved too much to handle for the outgoing DG.
The statement from the Presidency stated that the outgoing DG’s leave was “with effect from August 24, 2023, leading to his eventual retirement from service on November 24, 2023”.
“The President approves the appointment of Engr. Bisoye Coker-Odusote to serve as the Acting Director-General/CEO of the National Identity Management Commission for a 90-day period, with effect from August 24, 2023, after which, a full term of four years will begin as the substantive NIMC Director-General/CEO, beginning on November 24, 2023.
“Furthermore, President Tinubu approved the appointment of Hon. Yusuf Buba Yakub to serve as the Director/CEO of the Directorate of Technical Aid Corps. This follows the recent expiration of the tenure of the former DTAC Director/CEO, Dr Pius Osunyikanmi. This appointment takes immediate effect.”
Commenting on the new appointments, the President of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers, Adeolu Ogunbanjo, said, “He had a lot of issues which were concerns.
“He didn’t handle the hot periods of the NIN registration well. Also, the platform was unable to accommodate all the registrations that were coming in. This is somewhere that he was found wanting. Fortunately, he confessed to this also. For subscribers, he was not that successful. He had many issues and hopefully, the new DG would address this.”
According to NIMC, over 100 million people have enrolled for NIN so far.
However, the Founder of Convexity, Adedeji Owonibi, believes this is a testament to the work of the former DG.
He told The PUNCH that the DG was able to improve the state of NIMC and pioneered the usage of electronic NINs.
He said, “They have pivoted to the blockchain. The Nigerian identity is built on the blockchain, and it cannot be changed or swapped. The agency under him has tried.
“He also was responsible for the decentralisation of the registration. Before, NIMC was not able to do a lot of registration, but when they started giving it out, they have moved well, and are now on over a hundred million registrations. He has done his best.”