Why don't we have a single 'unique social ID number' like in developed countries

[Boiboi20]

Personally, I don’t see the reason why we have plenty identification numbers in the first place. In Nigeria, there are just too many redundant systems. You have BVN, NIN, voter’s card numbers, driver’s license numbers and more and yet a lot of people don’t even know when or where to use some of them.
It just feels like every government agency is just creating and allocating randomly generated numbers to Nigerians anyhow they like without any proper coordination.

But at least now, with the Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS) trying to harmonize all these into one Tax Identification Number (TIN) I can only hope this works out for the best. Even if the tax aspect doesn’t fully succeed at the end of the day, at least we would finally have one unique social Identification number attached to every individual, just like it is in other developed countries.

[Charles-Tim]

You are not wrong that just a single social identification number is enough instead of having BVN, NIN and others. I think that is even how it is working in countries like United States, but this is Nigeria, a country that have government officials that do not think in-depth before making decisions. No other reason than not having the appropriate thoughts about it.

[Boiboi20]

You are not wrong that just a single social identification number is enough instead of having BVN, NIN and others. I think that is even how it is working in countries like United States, but this is Nigeria, a country that have government officials that do not think in-depth before making decisions. No other reason than not having the appropriate thoughts about it.

You are right however one proper social ID should be enough there is really no need for B V N and NIN and all these multiple number that is how it works in a place like the U.S but this is Nigeria where decisions are made without proper thinking or coordination so instead of a simple well planned system we end up with different agencies doing their own thing and citizens paying the price for it.

[Solodoski]

I really wonder why we have so many identification number. I think we should have just one it should serve all the purpose of identification as other western countries. I think it's very useless having so many form of identification because they serve the same purpose. Sometimes I feel we don't know what want we are doing in this country. How do we have NIN, BVN  drivers license etc as form of identification, when we can only use one and they will all serve the same purpose. I think the government should look into this and it will also help use have the true data of every citizen in the country.

[promise444c5]

You are right however one proper social ID should be enough there is really no need for B V N and NIN and all these multiple number that is how it works in a place like the U.S but this is Nigeria where decisions are made without proper thinking or coordination.

They have different use cases and are managed by different bodies. Both do not necessarily contain the same information, but one can be used to verify the other or to get more details about an ID. The same goes for a driver’s licence. It has additional information that may not be present on a BVN or NIN.

Besides , your BVN is indirectly tied to many bank usage details..
It’s possible to have one major ID, but I think the idea works  best at a national level, like NIN , TIN and so on not at the banking level..

[Boiboi20]

I really wonder why we have so many identification number. I think we should have just one it should serve all the purpose of identification as other western countries. I think it's very useless having so many form of identification because they serve the same purpose. Sometimes I feel we don't know what want we are doing in this country. How do we have NIN, BVN  drivers license etc as form of identification, when we can only use one and they will all serve the same purpose. I think the government should look into this and it will also help use have the true data of every citizen in the country.

However it does not make sense at all why do we need so many different identification numbers when one proper national ID should be enough NIN and BVN drivers license and others are all meant to identify the same person yet were forced to register again and again.
In other countries one ID works for almost everything but here it feels like there no clear thinking or coordination it is stressful for citizen and also messy for the system if the government actually sat down and streamlined this into one unified ID it would save time reduce confusion and help them get more accurate data on citizens rights now it just feels it like unnecessary duplication and poor planning.

[Jegileman]

But at least now, with the Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS) trying to harmonize all these into one Tax Identification Number (TIN) I can only hope this works out for the best. Even if the tax aspect doesn’t fully succeed at the end of the day, at least we would finally have one unique social Identification number attached to every individual, just like it is in other developed countries.

There is need for the Nigerian government to harmonize all this things together, having multiples of Identification numbers won’t really solve anything in my own opinion. The stress we pass through in order to get out identification numbers is too much, if they’ve harmonized everything and one is being used for all, it’ll be the best and we don’t need to keep going up and down to register for different ID’s in the country. Harmonizing identification numbers could also help in a lot of things in the country, like tracking, keeping records, tracing etc.

[Spaceman1000$]

You are right however one proper social ID should be enough there is really no need for B V N and NIN and all these multiple number that is how it works in a place like the U.S but this is Nigeria where decisions are made without proper thinking or coordination.

They have different use cases and are managed by different bodies. Both do not necessarily contain the same information, but one can be used to verify the other or to get more details about an ID. The same goes for a driver’s licence. It has additional information that may not be present on a BVN or NIN.

Besides , your BVN is indirectly tied to many bank usage details..
It’s possible to have one major ID, but I think the idea works  best at a national level, like NIN , TIN and so on not at the banking level..

The information you have on all the IDs are the same, be it BVN, NIN or even driving license, the ID numbers are different but the content is the same, which is why people are complaining that we don't need all of this various IDs because just one ID can serve. All of this federal agencies managing this IDs can just harmonize and give us one unique number make everybody rest.

[Pjcr7]

Personally, I don’t see the reason why we have plenty identification numbers in the first place. In Nigeria, there are just too many redundant systems. You have BVN, NIN, voter’s card numbers, driver’s license numbers and more and yet a lot of people don’t even know when or where to use some of them.
It just feels like every government agency is just creating and allocating randomly generated numbers to Nigerians anyhow they like without any proper coordination.

But at least now, with the Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS) trying to harmonize all these into one Tax Identification Number (TIN) I can only hope this works out for the best. Even if the tax aspect doesn’t fully succeed at the end of the day, at least we would finally have one unique social Identification number attached to every individual, just like it is in other developed countries.

Firstly, how do you expect them to loot if every government doesn't come up with its own way of creating an irrelevant thing that will enable them to continue stealing from the treasury. Don't get me wrong but if you understand the Nigerian system, these things shouldn't be a thing of surprise to you. These men, I mean the politicians, they all travel abroad and see how things are done over there, is it that Nigeria doesn't have the resources that will easily pay for those kind of lifestyle? The country has it in abundance but if they set the system right, where will they loot from?

Although, I don't agree with numerous ID''s but at least two should be alright which the US calls Social Security Number, I think this should be for all the citizens wether newly born or old, that's the ID every should have and should be given at birth. This will be used to identify every citizens of the country and the second one should be driving licence. Not every one can have this and should be different from the S.S.N. I see no need for BVN and Voters card, all these could easily be integrated into these two if they really want but guess what they don't. Nigeria is a country that doesn't have constitution that's been followed. Every new president wants to make new rules instead of building upon the one he met.

[ArabBTC]

Nigeria is as a country is terrible when it comes to database and data keeping in general, we have allowed our corruption and poverty as a country to influence this part and that’s is why up till now we don’t have a unique ID as a country. By right just as developed countries do once a child is giving birth to he is immediately giving a unique ID number but it’s not so in Nigeria, as a matter of fact some children ain’t giving birth to in the hospital and even when giving birth to at home the parents don’t report back to the government for proper verification from birth.

I remember back then in secondary school there were some students that their name wasn’t even in the register yet they attended classes and still moved to the next class every new session, our border is also porous too so we have lots of foreigners in the country that we can’t account for, even lots of peoples date of birth are not correct that’s why lots of people depend on affidavit, so it’s really terrible, corruption has eaten so much into us, i think what we need as a country is to first have a unique ID that can be used to track everyone, we don’t really need plenty ID’s, we just need one central one that will be peculiar to every Nigerian, by so doing it will be easier for the government to accredit every sector, including census and tax reforms.