The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has insisted that it is compulsory for Nigerians to visit the enrolment centres to complete their National Identification Number registration.

It stressed that it was important for people not to get carried away with the generation of NIN due to Bank Verification Number (BVN) record harmonisation with the National Identity Database.

In a post on its Twitter handle on Tuesday, the agency asked those who have gotten their NIN through such a process to visit the enrolment centres to validate their number.

It said, “NIN generated by the BVN can only be used after it has been updated at the NIMC enrolment center. You must complete your NIN registration even if your BVN has generated a NIN.”

“If your NIN was generated due to BVN record harmonisation with the National Identity Database, you will not have access to the NIMC mobile app, and your NIN-SIM integration will be invalid.

“Kindly visit an enrolment centre to complete your NIN registration,” another tweet read.

The NIMC made the clarification following the controversy sparked by the use of short codes to generate the NIN.

This comes after some enrolees said they got the number after getting registered for the BVN, insisting that there was no need to visit any NIMC centre again.

Amid the second wave of COVID-19 in the country, thousands of Nigerians storm the NIMC enrolment centres daily.

There are fears that the rate of transmission at the enrolment centres is high because the enrolees fail to comply with the COVID-19 protocols.