Politics
A new public opinion poll released by NOIPolls has revealed that 80 percent of Nigerians are of the view that the national identity card should not have an expiration date.
The National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, through its official twitter handle on Monday October 14, 2019, announced that the renewal of the National Identity Card will cost ₦3,000 as well as charging the sum of N5,000 for card replacement.
The poll released on Thursday, October 31, showed that 72 percent of Nigerians interviewed disclosed that they are not willing to pay ₦3,000 for renewal of the card mainly because it is too expensive (40 percent) and they believe the card should be free of charge (35 percent). Nonetheless, 96 percent of Nigerians said that they acknowledged the need and importance of having a national identity and this assertion cuts across gender, geo-political zones and age-group.
“Further findings showed that 78 percent of the respondents (18 years and above) said that they have applied to obtain the national identity card. Out of the 78 percent who have applied, 65 percent claimed to have a temporary card, while 26 percent specified that they have obtained the permanent card though most of the respondents in this category had to wait for a long period of time before getting the permanent version; sometimes above one year,” the report said.
It noted that in terms of improving the process involved in registration and collection of the national identity, a larger proportion of Nigerians recommended that more registration centres should be created, collection of the permanent card should be immediately after registration and 7 percent advised that the collection centres should be decentralized.
The report added that “given the above recommendations by Nigerians, it is imperative that the NIMC and all stakeholders involved in the registration and collection exercise act swiftly to improve the overall process, by reducing the waiting time for the collection of permanent Identity cards as well issues bordering the new national identity card expiration policy”.
– Oct 31, 2019 @ 18:59 GMT |
Tags: Nigerians reject payment for National Identity Card renewal fee – Poll
