The Independent National Identification (NIN) agents, Southwest region have accused the management of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) of breach of contractual agreement over non-payment of two years commissions and unlawful invalidation of their Operation licences.
Mr Taiwo Odebunmi the group led made this known at a press conference in Ibadan at the weekend.
Odebunmi who spoke on behalf of over 120 affected agents called for the swift intervention of President Bola Tinubu-led Federal government noting the hardship that they have been subjected to as a result of non-payment of the commission and invalidation of their Operation licence.
He disclosed that the acquisition of the Enrolment devices and licences was made possible through a special loan under the AGSMEIS loan scheme from NIRSAL MFB.
Odebunmi added that N4,109,485.72 was granted per agent with “an agreement that our monthly commission paid by NIMC for the job into our NIRSAL MFB Repayment accounts would be used to defray the loan.
“However after the first two months of payment by NIMC from April to May 2021, the payment of the Commission stopped and through our 2021, from June to December 2021, we were not paid a dime.
“This caused a lot of discomfort and loss for our members. This backlog was, however, paid in March 2022 and deductions were made in repayment of the loan based on this backlog when the moratorium ended in February 2022.
Since then, NIMC has owed us commissions on enrollments done. This non-payment of commission has caused a lot of issues for us because NIRSAL MFB has since commenced the GSI Recovery process on agents through the assistance of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Also, in 2023, NIMC withdrew our licences through a bogus revalidation exercise. These licences were paid for with this loan and were withdrawn without regard to the fact our contract is for 5 years period.
“We are now appealing for the swift intervention of the Federal government and its relevance agencies at ensuring the payment of the outstanding commission of $1 per enrollment and revalidation of our operation licence,” he said.
