No NIN, no driving licence, says FRSC

The Federal Road Safety Corps says with effect from Monday December 21, 2020, all applicants for the National Driver’s Licence in Nigeria must present their National Identification Numbers ( NIN) from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) before they can be captured for any class of the licences produced by the agency.

It said this in a statement on Wednesday by its spokesman, Assistant Corps Marshal Bisi Kazeem, .

It added that the action was in compliance with the Federal Government’s directive on the harmonisation of citizens’ data by relevant agencies.

The Nigerian Communications Commission had earlier given the telecommunications a deadline of December 31 to block all SIM cards not linked to NIN.

The FRSC statement said, “All driver’s licence applicants are therefore expected to present their National Identification Number from the date before they can be attended to,” adding that there would be no waiver for anyone.

It stressed the need for a harmonised database on citizens’ information which he said was critical to resolving the challenges of identifying individuals to assist security agencies in data collation and quick retrievals to address some of the national security challenges.

The FRSC called on members of the public particularly, those going for their driver’s licence processing to take note of the directive and carefully follow the procedures for obtaining their NIN from the National Identity Management Commission which must be verified to be authentic, before action could be taken on their application for the licences.

Kazeem further stated that all numbers presented by the applicants must correspond with what NIMC issued to individuals for a harmonised database.

The Corps Public Education Officer solicited the cooperation of members of the public to make the policy a success in the collective interest of the nation and commitment to building and maintaining a credible national database on citizens.

“The FRSC remains committed to supporting the Federal Government in its resolve to tackling the challenges of citizens’ identification and national security challenges,” it stated.

It also assured “the driver’s licence applicants of improved services at the licence processing centres across the country” in line with the earlier messages of Corps Marshal Boboye Oyeyemi that improved service delivery remained at the centre point of the corps’ operations.

He further stressed that with due compliance by all driver’s licence applicants, the process of physical capturing at the Licence processing centre would be smooth.