The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) held the financial bid opening for the local production of the National eID Card, the final step in selection of local manufacturers for the eID Card.
Six firms, including Electronic Pay Plus Ltd, the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc and Secure ID Ltd. Currently there is no local manufacturing firm that has been certified and or accredited or with sufficient experience to produce the eID Card.
However according to the Card Manageemnt Services Department, a strategic plan has been put in place to ensure that local manufacturers with various related levels of competencies are enabled to acquire the required technical expertise and would be guided to achieve the set standards and certification to ensure that in the near future the Commission will no longer have to import the eID Cards the way it currently does.
Ibrahim Abdullahi, general manager, Finance and Investment, NIMC, said that the process which had been ongoing included a study of the existing Cards Industry – both card manufacture and card personalisation – to enable the Commission ascertain the best strategy to adopt to support possible local manufacturers to achieve the required capacities and competencies within a short time, in line with the Commission’s objectives under the Card Scheme of the National Identity Manageemnt System (NIMS).
“The Commission is also mindful of the fact that the NIMS Card scheme, when fully issued will have in excess of 150m in circulation and with an estimated annual replacement rate of about 15%,” he added.
The GM also said that the commission had worked on the design of the Card for over one year; which partly accounts for the long time it took to start issuing the Cards after Government gave its approval in November 2012.
Since the Card was launched in August 2014, Abdullahi said, the Commission has taken delivery of about 6.6 million Cards, part of the 13 million cards under the pilot scheme approved in 2012.
Already these Cards are being issued to their owners from Abuja and Lagos and in another week or two, from all State Offices of the NIMC, nationwide.
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