■ No receipt is issued to applicants for cash payments collected from them by NPC officials for the issuance of birth registration documents
Nigerians flocking to the National Population Commission (NPC) in Abuja to obtain birth certificates have lamented the controversial levy which the agency’s officials collect from them in cash as “administrative charges.”
The NPC, Nigeria’s statutory body tasked with the registration of births, and deaths, and the conduct of population census, an exercise it last held in 2006.
There were no complaints about the suspicious levy until the agency recently raised it from N1,000 to N2,000, adding to the officially recognised N2,000 fee which applicants must pay directly to the government’s bank accounts.
No receipt is issued for the cash payment, our reporter learnt from recent applicants and during a visit to the NPC’s headquarters in Abuja
Many struggling Nigerian parents told PREMIUM TIMES the additional cost constitutes an additional burden when they have to obtain birth-related documents for more than one child to register for certain school examinations.
Within a week, the “administrative charges” fee, was raised from N1,000 to N2000.
“As of Thursday, 4 January, officials in charge of birth attestation certificates at the NPC office Abuja were collecting N1000 as administrative charges. This is aside from the legitimate N2000 each applicant pays through the bank,” Nneka Okoli, a birth attestation applicant told PREMIUM TIMES at the premises of NPC office at 17 Lingu Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja, on Friday.
“The N1000 cash being paid by each applicant to the NPC clerks issuing the birth attestation is illegal,” Ms Okoli added.
The issue goes beyond the suspicious nature of the levy. The cash payment requirement defeats the essence of the online portal put in place for applicants to seamlessly apply for various birth-related documents with minimal need for human contact. The imposition of cash payments received by NPC officials creates a clog in the processing and issuance of the documents, a problem the applicants can only overcome by being physically present at the NPC office.
The director of the Public Affairs Department at NPC in an interview with this newspaper on Tuesday, said, “No staff member of the National Population Commission is allowed to receive any cash from birth registration applicants.”
The director, who is a lady, declined to disclose her name when this reporter asked for her comments on the details of what applicants called “extortion” that is going on at the commission.
Efforts to speak with Sunday Matthew, who heads NPC’s Department of Vital Registration, were unsuccessful.
This reporter checked at Mr Matthew’s office on 9 and 10 January, but the commission’s officials said he was not available for comments.
PREMIUM TIMES checks at the commission’s Abuja office at Lingu Crescent on 9 January, showed a fresh notice pasted inside the cramped office where the birth certificates were being issued saying, “Amount to be paid N2000 in the bank,…plus N2000 as admin charges.”
Musa Zakariya and Ashiedu Benita who spoke separately to this newspaper, said they were compelled to insert the N1,000 cash inside their birth attestation applications before the documents were signed by Madiu Suleiman, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) director of the NPC, Abuja.
“Paying any amount of money aside from the official fee, which I paid in the bank, is not only unacceptable but criminal,” Mr Zakariya said.
Another applicant, who did not want his name mentioned because his application was being processed as of last week Tuesday, said he paid a total of N5,000 being payments for the official fee of N2000 and additional being charges as “administrative charges.”
Why the rush for birth registration?
Recently, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) announced the compulsory presentation of a birth attestation from every Nigerian who intends to modify their biodata at the agency.
The NIMC is a statutory Nigerian agency with the mandate to collect and keep biometric data of citizens and residents of Nigeria and issue the national identity number to Nigerians.
The NIN remains Nigeria’s foundational identity which operational identities like passports, bank accounts, and drivers are built on.
Ms Okoli told this reporter that her application for the birth attestation was a result of the need to correct her date of birth as contained in her NIN.
“I am pressed to renew my passport, so I had to correct the error on my NIN to enable me to get my passport,” she said.
At its office gate at Wuse 2 in Abuja, the commission pasted a banner telling applicants for the birth attestation (certificate) to make an online payment of N2000 ($2).
However, inside the packed office, the commission’s registration officers were seen collecting N2000 as “administrative charges,” with a notice pasted inside the office as one of the criteria for issuing the birth attestation letter.
“I came all the way from Suleja in Niger State to process the birth attestation letter here in Abuja. After paying the online fee of N2000 plus bank charges, the NPC officials are demanding additional N2000 cash as administrative charges. These are arbitrary charges,” Ibrahim Mainoma, who journeyed from Suleja in Niger State, told this reporter.
Mr Mainoma, a teacher came with his teenage daughter after the NIMC centre at Suleja requested his daughter’s birth attestation for modification of her biodata.
The case of an applicant who simply gave her name as Nonye is more complicated.
Nonye had visited the NPC last Friday, 5 January, to process her birth attestation, but due to the agency’s demand for an affidavit from the FCT High Court, she could not commence her registration.
“When I came here last Friday, one of the ladies issuing the birth certificate said the commission was going to increase the administrative charges from N1000 to N2000 this week, which amounted to a 100 per cent rise. I thought it was a joke. Now, it’s true. The Commission is just taking advantage of Nigerians,” Nonye lamented.
She was not sure of getting her birth certificate despite paying the necessary fees on Tuesday, because the agency had run out of letterheads.
While Mr Mainoma could afford the extra charges, Andrew Joseph who came with his two teenage children turned around to their abode at Masaka in Nasarawa State, a satellite town close to Abuja.
“I came with my son (who is 18 years old) and daughter (19-year-old) to get their birth attestation letters, to enable them to get their NIN for UTME registration. But because of the high charges, we are returning home,” Mr Joseph, a farmer, told PREMIUM TIMES while exiting the NPC office on 9 January.
Mr Joseph’s children were due to register for the pre-university qualifying examination called Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) being conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
“I have struggled to raise the funds for my children’s UTME registration, only for the high charges by NPC to hinder the process,” Mr Joseph lamented.
As this reporter stood at the gates of the commission offices at Wuse 2 and Wuse Zone 7 (NPC headquarters) on Tuesday, 9 January, Nigerians in their dozens were trooping in and out in a desperate bid to obtain their birth certificates.
The development is tied to Nigeria’s drive to automate its governance processes, especially payment systems, citizens’ identity and data exchange.
The country struggles with the requisite digital public infrastructure like internet connectivity that is required to drive the automation process.
Although appreciable progress has been made by the NIMC by capturing 104.16 million Nigerians into the national database.
Similarly, the Nigeria Immigration Service has automated its passport operations across the country, thereby reducing the waiting time for the application and collection of the travelling document.
Nigeria’s policy on e-payment for public services
In 2012, the government launched a digital payment platform called Remita. It drives the country’s Treasury Single Account (TSA), aimed at blocking revenue leakages.
But the policy only became operational in 2015 when Muhammadu Buhari became Nigeria’s president.
Some government agencies averse to financial transparency bypass the Remita, depriving the government of the much-needed revenues, a member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Jeremiah Umaru from Nasarawa State, remarked last November.
“The TSA system has created a cashless economy, transparency, and effective tracking of cash assets with attendant accountability,” Mr Umar said, but the conduct of the NPC officials is one such instance of beating the Remita for personal gains.
Anti-corruption activists seek ICPC intervention
Debo Adeniran, a public accountability advocate, said the NPC’s conduct of charging N2,000 as administrative charges constitute an act of corruption.
“It is reprehensible that the National Population Commission is compelling birth attestation applicants to pay N2,000 outside of the banking system. It is corruption in full glare,” Mr Adeniran who leads the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, said.
He noted that any “payment made outside of the financial system goes into private pockets,” calling on the Nigerian anti-graft agency, ICPC, to wade in.
“The anti-corruption and transparency unit of the ICPC should be established in all public institutions in Nigeria, to ensure efficient and effective service delivery.
“I expect ICPC officials to go undercover and fish out these corrupt officials at the NPC, and make them pay for their crimes,” Mr Adeniran said.
A lawyer and fiscal accountability expert, Eze Onyekpere, urged the birth attestation applicants to demand receipts for every payment made to the commission.
“Victims of the alleged extortion should write complaints to law enforcement agencies, and demand refunds of their monies.”
Mr Eze, who leads the Centre for Social Justice, a public accountability-focused civil society organisation, noted that “the refusal to issue receipts to applicants by NPC officials is an acknowledgement that what they are doing is illegal.”
This report is produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.
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