To relieve financial pressures and encourage NIN enrollment, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) will pay its front-end partners (FEPs) two years arrears, this quarter.
While sympathising with the FEPs, who have been conducting their companies without payment for two years, Commission Director-General Abisoye Coker-Odusote made the guarantee in a recent statement.
Additionally, Coker-Odusote shared her empathy with the FEPs who have had to run their businesses for two years without receiving payment.
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Exercise for revalidation
The NIMC DG said that the recent revalidation process for the FEPs had helped the Commission figure out how much money was owed.
Under my leadership, the National Identity Management Commission reviewed the outstanding payments the new management inherited to offset the debt after a due audit process to authenticate the FEP claims.
After discovering that some FEP bills did not match the database’s enrolment figures, we revalidated the data to ensure accuracy.
Still, we’re finishing the audit, and the FEPs’ activation will depend on the validation exercise. We apologise for the delay and ask for patience, especially as the new NIMC management has been trying to resolve all inherited debts for a few months.
Poor finances
Coker-Odusote remarked that the previous Commission management lacked the finances to settle pending bills. “The present management is trying hard to find funds to pay off the debt,” she said.
“I use the opportunity to underline that the revalidation effort was intended to clean the system and ensure efficient and effective enrolment processes in line with worldwide best practices for securing people’s data, she said.
In the past
Some FEPs hired for short-term enrollment activities that began in 2021 recently wrote to the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, complaining that they are in debt due to bank loans used to buy equipment and other miscellaneous costs, money owed to consumables and staff suppliers, and the massive drop in the naira.
On October 12, 2023, the FEPs wrote: “RE: Request For Meeting On Payment Of Outstanding Enrolment Fees To FEPS And Matters Arising In The Commission,” requesting a meeting with the minister to understand its issues better.
The companies added nearly 60 million NINs to the NIMC database during their involvement. However, they were not paid.