The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has assured Nigerians that the challenges associated with the delay in issuance of the new National Identity Cards to Nigerians will be tackled.

The Director-General of the commission, Mr Aliyu Aziz, who made this disclosure in Abuja, on Tuesday, said that the commission had been besieged with complaints about the delay.

Aziz said the complaints were from Nigerians who had registered long ago but were yet to be issued with their permanent identity cards.

As at 2016, over 750,000 cards are yet to be collected, while not more than 300,000 cards had been collected by Nigerians.

Millions of Nigerians have been screened and issued with the temporary National Identity Number, but have yet to receive the permanent Identity card.

The Director-General, however, blamed the delay on the paucity of funds. He explained that the commission has facility to register as much as three 300 million citizens in its data base.

Aziz, however, said that the National Identity Number (NIN) is more important than the card.

NIN is a unique 11-digit number assigned to an individual upon successful enrolment into the national identity database (NIDB).

According to Aziz, it is the NIN that helps to tie all records about a person in the database and is used to check the identity verified.

“What is important is digital certification. We have always emphasised that NIN is the most important.

“So, once you have the NIN that is okay. But we are doing our best to issue the cards,” he said.

The D-G assured that the commission is exploring avenues to expand its cope and capacity to be able to deliver faster and more efficient in meeting the expectation of Nigerians.

“It is part of measures to create a comprehensive national identity database to drive national development planning and to prevent both double identity and identity fraud,’’ he added.

NIMC began the enrolment exercise into the NIDB in September 2010 and started the issuance of a multipurpose card in 2013.

(NAN)