You Can Now Use Your ATM Card As IDs

Do you know that you can now use your ATM as your National Identity Card? Yes, this is possible according a new directive from the federal government. A new directive from Abuja has instructed all banks to start issuing debit cards to customers that will serve as both ATM and national identity card.

The card which will be made available at no extra cost can be requested by any customer at his or her bank. The new directive was announced on Wednesday by the communications minister Isa Pantami in Abuja after a meeting of the Federal Executive Council. According to him, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has given approval to all banks to print a multipurpose debit card that double as national identity cards.

What this means, is that whenever you visit your bank to request for a new card, be it Master, Visa or Verve card, you can ask the bank to make it a multipurpose debit card. This will serve as your national identity card on the one hand and also your bank card on the other hand.

According to the minister, although the NIMC Act 2007 only mandates Nigerians to having a National Identity Number and not necessarily a printout card, demands for cards have swelled nonetheless.

He added, “To make it easier, NIMC last year, we introduced a smart ID card you can download from the NIMC app. It is just a smart card. You don’t need to have it physically, but that is becoming difficult for our people living in rural communities.”

To ease the difficulty, NIMC had partnered the Central Bank of Nigeria “so that citizens who are interested in having a card at hand can easily go to the relevant banks.”

According to him, the bank is permitted to print the card along with either a Mastercard or Visa card.

“It is going to be a form of a multipurpose card that will serve as your national identity card on the one hand and also your bank card on the other. And based on the agreement, it is without any additional costs on our citizens,” the minister stated.

So when you apply for a card at your bank, you can indicate that ‘I want this card to be multiple-purpose where it will serve as my bank card and also my national identity card.