The Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission, Garba Abubakar, has said the National Identity Number (NIN) will replace signatures in business registration. Mr Abubakar said this at the just concluded 2022 management retreat held in Kano, according to a statement signed Thursday by the spokesperson of the CAC, Rasheed Mahe.
The CAC boss said the new plan is part of the integration with the National Identity Management Commission, adding that when implemented, the CAC may only require NIN enrollment numbers and not signatures to process registration applications as obtained in other jurisdictions. The statement said the CAC at the retreat re-trained staff in all sectors of its operations and will continue to receive priority attention. Mr Abubakar revealed that this year the Commission would surpass the 583 staff trained in 2021 and train 700 by the end of 2022. He added that more staff of the Commission would also be empowered with working tools some of which were to be provided courtesy of the World Bank to enable them to grant registration approvals even outside of working hours. Other government agencies have previously mandated the use of NIN for Nigerians after the number became mandatory for SIM cards in December 2020. In April 2022, the Nigerian government mandated telecoms companies to bar SIMs not linked to NINs.
In the second quarter of 2021, Nigerians began using NIN to register their automobiles. The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) spokesperson, Bisi Kazeem, said the choice was made by a presidential directive. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has directed all potential candidates for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) to obtain their NIN in advance of the exercise.
