According to reports, the Nigerian Federal Government intends to replace the present 11-digit National Identity Number NIN with a digital token consisting of 16 alphabets and digits beginning in January 2022.
The National Identity Management Commission revealed this in a brochure titled “Facts on NIN Tokenization.”
Companies and agencies are only authorized to retain and validate virtual NIN or digital tokens, which are a set of 16 alpha-numeric characters supplied exclusively by an ID holder with NIN, according to the booklet.
“The virtual NIN is issued by an ID holder who has onboarded the NIMC MobileID application or created via the USSD service,” according to the pamphlet. The Digitoken is assigned to a single verification entity and can only be validated by that entity.”
The vNIN is non-transferable and expires after 72 hours, according to the information provided.
“The Digitoken issued by the ID holder (to be known as the Issuer) will henceforth replace the raw 11-digit NIN in all databases throughout the country, with the exception of the National Identity Database housed at the NIMC,” according to the pamphlet.
It was revealed that the digital tokens would be fully implemented by January 2022.
As a result, the federal government intends to declare any organization or agency that verifies the 11-digit National Identity Number an illegal and punishable offense.
