Nigerians blast NIMC over extortion for data modification

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has suffered severe criticism from Nigerians over alleged extortion.

In several comments on X, Nigerians berated the NIMC for allegedly extorting Nigerians over the modification of their data in their National Identification Cards.

The NIMC has the mandate to establish, own, operate, maintain, and manage the National Identification Database in Nigeria.

The commission also gives room for data modification for those already captured in the database.

However, Nigerians have decried the high cost of data modification by the commission.

They lamented that the commission charges as much as N16,000 for data modification.

They also berated NIMC for allegedly making the data modification process tedious.

“I paid N16,000 to change mine two years ago. The money they charge is not even the problem. The problem is the stress you will go through before the correction is made,” an X user identified as Gift lamented.

“Three months. That’s how long I had to wait before it was finally effected,” Gift added.

Adeniyi Fawwa noted that he paid “N25,000 two times to get his data modified.

Another X user, Boda Anjola, alleged that despite paying N15,000 to get his data modified, all his efforts were abortive.

He added that he paid “an agent” who modified his data successfully.

“I paid N15,000 a few years ago to change it, to no avail. I paid N35,000 to an agent recently; he successfully changed it.”

Lekhiat said, I paid N15,000, and I had to wait from March until August before the corrections were made.”

Describing the NIMC as “thieves,” King Ragnar states, “I paid N25,000 for the remittance, N5,000 for the affidavit, N25,000 to settle the tracking. If not, my japa could have been jeopardized by those very corrupt, irresponsible set of thieves.”

He added that he “even contributed money for the fuel that they used that year at their office in PZ Benin City.”

“I paid N15,000 to change mine before the self-service was launched, still went to submit the modification papers at the Alausa office, queued under the hot sun, and still had to wait for over a month before the change was effected.

“I was really angry that we had to still follow such a process in 2024,” Usman Jafar noted.

Amid the backlash, Bayo Giwa alleged that staff of NIMC “deliberately” changed people’s profiles in a bid to extort money from unsuspecting Nigerians.

“The NIMC staff are deliberately going into people’s profiles and changing information,” Giwa alleged.

“Mine was changed; thank God I have my NIN and an app-generated copy of my ID, which I paid remita to print.

“My dad’s gender was changed last year, and now he has to pay N20,000 to have it changed,” Giwa added.