The Federal Government plans to introduce digital token comprising 16 alphabets and numbers to replace the current 11-digit National Identity Number (NIN). It is learnt that the digital token will take effect from January 2022.
With the introduction of the digital token, the Federal Government plans to make illegal and a punishable offence, any company or agency found verifying the 11-digit National Identity Number.
The National Identity Management Commission disclosed this in a booklet titled, ‘Fact about NIN tokenization.’ According to the booklet, companies and agencies are allowed to only store and verify virtual NIN or digitoken, which is a set of 16 alpha-numeric characters issued exclusively by the ID holder with NIN.
The Digitoken is issued to a specific verification entity and may be only verified by that entity and no one else. It was disclosed that the virtual NIN is non-transferable and expires after 72 hours.
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It was further revealed that minors could generate a virtual NIN from their parents’ profile on the NIMC application.
The booklet read in part, “The Digitoken issued by the ID holder (to be known as the Issuer) will now replace the raw 11-digit NIN in all databases around the country, with the exception of the National Identity Database domiciled at the NIMC.
“It will become illegal and punishable to the full extent of the law to store or attempt to verify the raw NIN”.
It was disclosed that full implementation of the digitoken should happen by January 2022.
