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By Oluseye Ojo
No fewer than 120 independent National Identification Number (NIN) enrolment agents from the South West region have accused the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) of failing to honour a two-year commission and unlawfully revoking their operational licences.
The spokesperson for the agents, Mr. Taiwo Odebunmi, at a press conference at the weekend in Ibadan, detailed the hardships being faced by the affected agents, due to the NIMC’s alleged breach of contract.
“We are appealing for the swift intervention of President Bola Tinubu’s Federal Government,” Odebunmi pleaded, as he drew attention to the dire financial straits many agents now find themselves in.
The agents, who obtained enrolment devices and licences through a special loan under the AGSMEIS loan scheme from NIRSAL Microfinance Bank (MFB), claimed that the troubles began shortly after acquiring their licences.
“Each agent was granted N4,109,485.72 with an agreement that our monthly commission paid by NIMC for the job into our NIRSAL MFB Repayment accounts would be used to defray the loan.
“However after the first two months of payment by NIMC from April to May 2021, the payment of the commission stopped and throughout 2021 – from June to December 2021, we were not paid a dime.
“This caused a lot of discomfort and losses for our members. This backlog was, however, paid in March 2022 and deductions were made in repayment of the loan based on this backlog when the moratorium ended in February 2022.
“Since then, NIMC is owing us commissions on enrollments done. This non-payment of commission has caused a lot of issues for us because NIRSAL MFB has since commenced the GSI Recovery process on agents through the assistance of the Central Bank of Nigeria
“ Also, in 2023, NIMC withdrew our licences through a bogus revalidation exercise. These licences were paid for with this loan and were withdrawn without regard to the fact our contract is for a five year period.
“We are now appealing for the swift intervention of the Federal Government and its relevant agencies at ensuring the payment of the outstanding commission of $1 per enrollment and revalidation of our operation licence.”
