The Federal Government has announced that plans are ongoing to replace Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) with National Identity Numbers (NIN).
The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, disclosed this to newsmen shortly after a facility tour and inspection of the ongoing NIN enrolment exercise at NIMC and other designated centers in Abuja.
He said he had made a presentation to the National Economic Sustainability Committee and had drawn the attention of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to the need to replace BVN with NIN.
According to him, the BVN is only a regulator’s policy and is applicable to those who have bank accounts, while NIN is a law and is necessary for every citizen and legal resident in the country.
“BVN is our secondary database, while NIN and the database is the primary one in the country that each and every institution should make reference to NIMC.
“That is why we came up with the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation that we always enforce and this is applicable to the database at our disposal.
“We take care of it and make sure that security is excellent and we don’t allow anybody to compromise the content because it is a trust from our citizens given to us,’’ he said.
Giving reasons why private agents were used for NIN enrolment, the minister said the move was in line with the global standard. He also emphasized the need for NIMC to focus on regulatory work and set the standards for biometrics registration, measuring of heights, standard for data to be collected and general verification.