Buhari Taps Aziz as New DG of NIMC

President Muhammadu Buhari may have approved the appointment of Engineer Aliyu Aziz Abubakar, as the new director general and chief executive officer of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).‎

The Presidency is yet to issue official statement on Aziz, but highly placed sources said that he is being touted as replacement for Barr. Chris Onyemenam, because of his knowledge and vast experience that will help harmonise the various databases domiciled in different government organisations.

He is also expected to successfully capture all eligible Nigerians and legal residents into the database for national planning and efficiency.

With more than thirty years’ of post qualification experience in Engineering & Information Technology, spanning both the private and public sectors, Engr. Aziz holds a B.Eng in Civil Engineering and M.Sc in Structural Engineering with Specialty in Computer Aided Design from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria.

Aziz was once the Information Technology Adviser to the Minister, Federal Capital Territory Administration, where he pioneered the implementation of the first e-government solution that won a Microsoft award in 2006.

He served as the Sub-committee Technical Chairman on the Presidential Committee on Harmonisation of ICT which resulted in the formation of Galaxy Backbone.

He was also a Deputy Director, Information Technology at the Bureau of Public Enterprises and the Principal Consultant, Management Information System (MIS) Department, Afri-Projects Consortium.

He was a director at the Secretariat of the Presidential Implementation Committee in the SGF’s office saddled with the responsibilities for the Implementation of Government Decisions on Consumer Credit System, National Outsourcing Initiative and Harmonization of Identification Schemes in Nigeria.

The committee oversaw the setting up of the National Identity Management Commission in 2007.

In his professional career, he designed and supervised several landmark structures in Kaduna and Abuja, including the National Universities Commission (NUC) Secretariat, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Headquarters, African Petroleum (AP) Plaza, Nigeria Agricultural and Cooperative Bank (NACB) Office block and several others.

He is a member of several professional bodies, including the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers (NIStructE) where he is the current Vice President.

He is also a member of the Computer Association of Nigeria (COAN) now Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) and the Internet Society (ISOC).

He is widely travelled and an alumnus of Harvard, Stanford, IMD and Lagos Business School.