President directs the use of National Identification Number for voting in the future

The president has directed the use of the National Identification Number (NIN) for the identification and authentication of eligible voters in the future. This was announced by the Vice-president, Yemi Osinbajo, who was represented by Ade Ipaye, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the president while addressing a policy roundtable on identity at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa.The Vice president added that the NIN would be used to access health insurances, SIM card registration, social welfare programmes and all financial transactions.This new development is believed to help improve the security of lives and property, enhance service delivery and fight poverty and corruption.The Vice-president expressed disappointment over the fact that the country had separate but similar identities of its citizens as collated by various governmental agencies, pointing out that it was time to harmonize the data to save people the time of being captured many times and as well as to save funds.