By Gom Mirian
Nigerians, according to the Federal Government, may now ask their commercial banks to issue them with a debit card that also serves as their country’s identification card.
Rising from the Federal Executive Council meeting held in Abuja under the chairmanship of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister of Communications and the Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami said the multipurpose card will be given to Nigerians at no cost.
According to him, the approval followed a memo from the National Identity Management Commission allowing banks to print multipurpose debit cards that double as National identity cards.
“The bank is permitted to print the card along with either a Mastercard or Visa card.
“So when you apply for a card at your bank, you can indicate that ‘I want this card to be multiple purposes where it will serve as my bank card and also my national identity card.
” Both of them are going to be printed on the same card and it is going to serve the same purposes without any additional costs,” he said.
He further explained that NIMC and the CBN signed a nondisclosure agreement to protect the privacy and confidentiality of card applicants. He assured the privacy and confidentiality of card users.
“As we all know that previous administrations made efforts to verify NIN and SIM starting from 2011 without success.
“The Nigerian Communications Commission came up with a proposal that will enhance the implementation of the policy and bring many more benefits to it.”.
