NIN portal breakdown: FG chides banks, telcos for turning back customers

The federal government has said there is no justification for some commercial banks and telecommunication providers to fail attending to their customers over the breakdown of the country’s identity portal.

The government, through the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), also said the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) had no reason for refusing to attend to international passport seekers on the ground that its officials could not access NIMC’s portal.

• 2023: Take charge of Nigeria now, Ohiare urges youth
• Electoral bill: I’ll advise Buhari against assent if… – Malami

Daily Trust reports that some banks and telecommunication operators in the country have refused to attend to some customers due to the maintenance being carried out on the identity portal. 

It would be recalled that the federal government has made it compulsory for Nigerians to supply their unique identity numbers otherwise known as NIN before they can access certain services offered by some private companies and government agencies.

However, NIMC’s portal has been down since last week, and the development is said to have affected the issuance of international passports, account opening at banks and access to telecommunication services.

But NIMC on Monday chided the banks and telcos, as well as the NIS, for blaming it for their inability to offer services to their customers.

NIMC in a statement by its spokesperson, Kayode Adegoke, said it was an unreasonable action for the organisations to shirk their duties.

The commission said the organisations had an alternative platform through which they could render services. The alternative platform according to NIMC is TOKENISATION. “Tokenization is working!!!” Declared NIMC.

Adegoke, who is the NIMC Head Corporate Communications, said,  “Even though the NIN Verification Service (NVS) might be down due to maintenance by one of our service providers of its infrastructure, the alternative platform – TOKENISATION is up and running. No one should be debarred of any service on the guise of NIN not being verified.