NIMC D-G: Over 100m Nigerians lack identity

The Director-General (D-G), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Aliyu Abubakar, said over 100 million Nigerians have no official identity.
The D-G made this known on Monday in Kaduna, in a paper on Importance of National Identity to National Building, presented during the 6th General Assembly of Northern Traditional Rulers Council.
According to him, those with no identity comprised the poorest, most vulnerable groups, including women and girls and less educated people, among others.
He explained that inclusive and trusted identity system can help in empowering individuals and enhance their access to rights, services and formal economy.
Abubakar added that it would also assist in generating reliable and continuous statistics to measure progress, support informed policies and enable the growth of digital economy.
In his presentation on border closure, the Comptroller General, Nigerian Customs Service,  Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), explained that the measure had curved smuggling of prohibited items into the country.
Ali also said it had raised the NCS daily revenue collection from N4 billion before the border closure to N6 billion.
The NCS boss, who was represented by Comptroller Omiye Adesanmi, noted that smuggling of illicit drugs and weapons into the country had also drastically reduced.
He explained that Nigeria has engaged Customs administrations of neighboring countries to comply with the ECOWAS protocol on transit of goods and persons, to protect Nigerian economy from the effects of smuggling.
Ali pledged to seek stakeholders support including the media to ensure that the desired objectives of the exercise were fully achieved.
He urged Nigerians to patronise local rice and other goods, to boost the nation’s economy.
Another presentation on “Northern Youths and the Challenges of Drug Abuse in Nigeria”, by the Chief Executive Officer, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Col. Muhammad Abdullahi (rtd), noted that the future of the youth in Northern Nigeria was being threatened by the flow of illicit drugs.
He lamented that the positive support, dedication, integrity and leadership that the region expected from the youths have vanished, as large part of the youth population have resorted to the use hard of drugs.
Abdullahi called for massive education and enlightenment campaign across the country on the dangers of illicit drugs use, noting that ignorance and lack of adequate knowledge were partly responsible for drug abuse.