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Buhari gives agencies approval to access NIMC database

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President Muhammadu Buhari has given some security agencies permission to access the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) database as part of carrying out their duties.

Accordingly, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr. Isa Pantami, has conveyed the approval to the relevant security agencies through the Nigerian Communications Commission.

Although he declined to name the security agencies, he said the development would enhance security since it would enable security operatives to go after kidnappers and other criminals more efficiently.

Pantami shared this information with Nigerian journalists during a press conference on the sidelines of LEAP 22, a tech event currently in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

He said, “Some of the security institutions, based on the cybercrime law, are allowed to gain access to the database without coming to us because the database allows for lawful intercept. That lawful intercept was allowed in order to support our security agencies.

“Mr. President has given an approved for them to do it, without even our intervention. So, with that approval, the NCC has conveyed that through my office to all the relevant institutions that the President has granted an approval for that.

“So, with it, they can gain access into the database even without our permission, and they have never complained to me, even for once. The only person that wrote a letter to me is the Minister of Defence, asking that we should try to finish the NIN-SIM policy on time.”

Over 73 million Nigerians have linked their National Identity Number with their SIM cards at the NIMC, but the minister is concerned that the agency is still struggling with infrastructure, salary, and welfare issues.

Furthermore, he noted that the government had trouble paying salaries and implementing measures to support the commission.

Pantami said, “If you look at the circumstances, NIMC is doing very well. Before my coming, what NIMC captured was just about 40 million, but now over 73 million have been done. We have achieved over 30 million within one year, while 40 million was achieved from 2007 to 2020.

“Secondly, about NIN-SIM registration, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy and the NIMC are not security institutions. We are a sector for economic development but we came up with the policy, because the priority of the government is security and it is a constitutional obligation of any government. It is in the 1999 Constitution as amended, Section 14 Subsection 2, Article B, it is our responsibility.”

StatiSense, a Nigerian data consulting company, reported 5,287 kidnapping cases in Nigeria in 2021.

The minister said that despite the fact that 73 million NINs are in the NCC’s possession, no security agency has contacted it to provide information useful in tracking down kidnappers over the past six months.

President Muhammadu Buhari, during the launch of the National Policy for the Promotion of Indigenous Content in Nigeria’s Telecoms Sector and the Revised National Identity Policy for SIM cards registration, said; “The NIN will cover one of the weaknesses in our security structure. We will be able to easily identify and know the personality of Nigerians. We will identify people easily, including the crooks.”

In 2020, the Federal Government mandated the NIN-SIM linkage for every telecom subscriber.

Pantami said, “I was in the Federal Executive Council media team presentation last week and these same questions were also asked.

“I said to them, this is what we have been doing for security and the EVC/CEO of the NCC was next to me, just like now, and I asked him if there was any time that any security institutions contacted the NCC to provide details of anyone of which he failed; he said ‘no’.

“Secondly, in the last six months, did they ever contact you to provide any information of which you failed to do so? He said ‘no’. So, in the last six months, no one contacted us.”

However, Pantami emphasized that some security agencies recently received approval from President Buhari to bypass the National Communications Commission and access the database directly.

He explained that such ‘lawful intercept’ was authorised by Buhari to offer support to the security agencies.

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