The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), says it is collaborating with the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to prevent foreigners from enrolling as Nigerians in the National Identity Scheme.

NIMC Director General, Mr Aliyu Aziz stated this speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.

“The essence is to prevent foreigners from getting enrolled as well as discover those who have already acquired the National Identification Number (NIN) illegally,” Aziz said.

He said that the NIS officials have been helpful, especially in enrollment centres within the border communities across the country.

“You know, the immigration officers are trained to identify who is a foreigner and so far, we are working with them to achieve that. Because, the immigration officers can identify foreigners from their names, their profiles and dressing,” he said.

Aziz said foreigners residing in the country are allowed to register, noting however, that their registration does not cover citizenship.

“But when it comes to obtaining NIN, it is not allowed for a foreigner to enroll as a Nigerian, he or she can be registered as a foreigner, his registration can only identify him as a foreigner residing in Nigeria”.

“Like a Cameroonian for example, if he or she comes forward we register him as a Cameroonian and put his nationality as such,” he said.

He expressed confidence that the registration would assist in resolving identity and security issues bedevilled the country.

He, however, said that NIMC is faced with challenges of power and internet services supply in enrolling people in rural communities where electricity and network are still issues.

“For example, in some locations in Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina states, rural communities don’t have broadband to send data”.

“What people do there is that, when they capture the data they have to come back to Sokoto the capital to now upload the data, they are given 72 hours or three days to do that because of privacy or data protection”.

“After three days, the data will be wipe away automatically because you are not suppose to keep it for a longer time, so the enrolment software controls it,” he said.

He said that the commission has over 200 locations across the 36 states of the federation including the FCT where there are pockets of internet networks access.

“But, power is also major problem, we either use generator or solar power system in places where we have power problem,” he said.(NAN).