How to check drivers license status in Nigeria
What for should one know the driver’s license status in Nigeria? It’s a fact that Nigeria has recently faced a large number of fake driving licenses. They are issued in such a way that their owners may not even know that they have a false document. This is why you need to know how to check your license validity.
How to verify if your driver’s license is genuine?
The point about all this case with the fake licenses is that people in Nigeria have no idea that they are using fake licenses. They just drive and one day they get into trouble because the road police detect that their licenses are fake. This is a very unpleasant situation with an unexpected outcome.
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This has happened due to the heavy corruption in some of the institutions related to the roads, driving, and all the connected stuff. If you have received the license recently and have no idea whether it’s genuine or not, you can pass a simple procedure and discover the truth.
You need to perform the following steps:
- Go to the official website of Nigerian Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), which is located at https://www.nigeriadriverslicence.org
- Once there, click the DL Application
- You will see a drop-down menu, in which you need to select Re-Issue Driver’s License for a valid one and Renewal for a driving license that has already expired
- You will see a box that will open after the previous step. In this box, you need to enter the number of the driver’s license you already have and your date of birth
- Now, select Search
- You will see a pop-up box. In it, you will need to confirm that the entered driver’s license is correct and select OK
Now, you need to wait and see whether you will receive the information on your license. In case you get it, you can sleep soundly because your driver’s license is real. If there’s no information found on the number of your license and your birth date, your license is a fake, unfortunately. It’s not in the FRSC base and using it further will be illegal.
What to do to avoid being given a fake driver’s license in Nigeria?
Now, when you know already how to make a driver’s license check in Nigeria, you need to know what to do to avoid these fake driving licenses. The information is important for both the drivers with the existing licenses and a driving experience and the ones who are obtaining their rights for driving for the first time.
It will be very wise not to obtain the licenses from individuals who are not official representatives of the Federal Road Safety Commission. There are special agencies that are allowed to issue legal and valid driving licenses and they should be the only place where an individual is supposed to obtain a driving license.
How to obtain a valid driving license?
There are several steps that allow a person to obtain a true and valid driving license that will cause no question from the road police.
- First of all, you need to complete a training at a driving school. There are special accredited driving schools in Nigeria, so you need to find such a school in your vicinity and pass the training. It will not only boost your knowledge of the traffic rules but also give you a learner’s permit. It will be a great support if you are involved in a car crash
- After the training, you will pass a practical examination with a special officer from the Vehicle Inspection. This officer will test your driving skills and see how well you have remembered all the traffic rules
- If you pass the examination, the officer will provide you with a certificate of proficiency
- Having it, you can apply for your driving license at the DLC (Driver’s License Center). You are able to pay for it online
- After this, you provide the application form to the officials who are saddled with issuing the licenses at the mentioned Driver’s License Center
- Some of your biometric data will be collected at this stage and you will receive a temporary license that works for sixty days
- Within the sixty days, you will receive your permanent license at the Nigerian Board of International Revenue. It will be working for three years and then you will need to replace it with a new one
At this point, knowing how everything works with the documents and diverse services connected with bureaucracy, you need to remember that the process of obtaining the permanent license may take two weeks of the mentioned sixty days or fifty-nine whole days of waiting.
Here, you need to develop a lot of patience because there will certainly be a situation when you come there to pick your license and they will say something like, “It’s not ready, come tomorrow”, or so. In such a case, you need something that will help you confirm the status of your driver’s license without visiting the office personally.
Of course, FRSC claims that they send their clients special alerts to inform them that their licenses are ready and can be collected from the office but things happen. You just need to know for sure whether you have not skipped the alert message occasionally or just to check the status of your driver’s license in Nigeria.
Try this method:
- Open text messages on your phone
- Type in the following: NDL STATUS [the number of your license] (for instance, NDL STATUS FN63483AT78)
- Send the text to 33811
You will receive an automatic reply that will provide you with the information you need on the readiness of your driver’s license. If you are informed that it’s ready but you have not yet received the alert, feel free to visit the office and demand the document.
Sometimes, however, something unexpected happens and they truly delay the issuing of your license. In such situations, it may last longer than the period of validity of your temporary license. If this is happening to you, you will need to visit the office personally and demand the extension of your temporary license validity.
Namely, this is all regarding the driver’s licenses in Nigeria. Be very careful and don’t trust strangers who offer you making driving licenses away from the legal official agencies. If you need to renew the existing license or receive a new one, the best thing you can do is turn to an official institution and do everything in compliance with the law.
READ ALSO: Consequences of disobeying traffic rules and regulations in Nigeria
Source: Legit.ng
