FG to NIMC: Address concerns on NIN integration charges for passport applicants

Forum 1 year ago

FG to NIMC: Address concerns on NIN integration charges for passport applicants

THE Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, PEBEC, had called on the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, to as a matter of urgency, address its introduction of N1,000 charge for National Identification Number, NIN, integration and verification for each Nigerian passport applicant.

The call was made in a statement, signed by the Special Adviser to the President, Ease of Doing Business/PEBEC Secretary, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, on Tuesday, in Abuja.

Oduwole, stating that the NIMC new move would begin by April 1, 2023, urged the commission to review the new regulation through the lens of making it faster and cheaper to access government services.

While commending the moves by the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, to significantly improve the quality of service, accuracy, and speed of passport services through the verification of NIN, she said the additional cost for each applicant has not been well received by stakeholders.

She also said that the provisions of the Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2022 (BFA), signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, codified Executive Order 001 on transparency and efficiency of public service delivery, adding that the purposes of the “One Government” directive, where an applicant requires service from a ministry, department or agency (MDA), the MDA is mandated to conduct the necessary verification or certification from relevant MDAs, in respect of the applicant.

“On May 18, 2017, Executive Order 001 (EO1) on Transparency and Efficiency in the Business Environment was issued as the Administration’s first Executive Order to strengthen the implementation of business climate reforms and to deepen collaboration among ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) by instituting a systemic change management process for reforms.

“EO1 mandates MDAs to submit monthly reports to the PEBEC Secretariat, the offices of the Head of Service (HOS) of the Federation, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), and SERVICOM. You will recall that on March 9, the PEBEC released its 2022 Executive Order 001 (EO1) Compliance Report, in line with its promise to continuously track and keep the business community updated on the compliance with the Executive Order

“In the last six years, the PEBEC has consistently published an EO1 Compliance Report, which captures a periodic empirical analysis of the monthly reports received from MDAs. According to the latest EO1 Compliance Report which covers January to December 2022, the top five performing MDAs are:

“The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) which emerged first at 81.11%; Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) (2nd, 78.68%); Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC) (3rd, 68.37%); Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) (4th, 64.59%); and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) (5th, 63.68%).

“In releasing the report, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business and Secretary to the PEBEC stated that “the codification of EO1 directives in the Business Facilitation Act 2022 is a major development in the efforts to entrench EO1 in the psyche of the Civil Service. It is expected that the legal provisions will serve as a stimulus for a more transparent and efficient public service delivery in Nigeria.

“The PEBEC, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo SAN, GCON, was established in July 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari to remove critical bottlenecks and bureaucratic constraints to doing business in Nigeria.”