The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has set a target of capturing the entire population on its database within the next three to five years.
The World Bank recently approved a credit of $430 million for the NIMC under the Nigeria digital identification for development project.
According to the Bretton Wood institution, the credit will be financed through an International Development Association (IDA) credit of US$115 million and co-financing of US$100 million from the French Agency for Development and US$215 million from the European Investment Bank.
It said the credit will “support the National Identity Management Commission to increase the number of persons who have a national identification number (NIN) reaching about 150 million in the next couple of years”.
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“This will enable people in Nigeria, especially marginalised groups, to access welfare-enhancing services. The project will also enhance the ID system’s legal and technical safeguards to protect personal data and privacy.”
Speaking to TheCable, Aliyu Aziz, NIMC chief executive officer said: “FGN’s focus and commitment is to accelerate digital identity development in Nigeria by issuing a unique identifier to every individual on Nigeria’s soil (citizens and residents) and people of Nigerian descent living in the diaspora.
“The World Bank Board approval of the Identity 4 Development project in Nigeria signifies the commencement of the implementation journey towards rolling out the ecosystem design of the ID project. Our target is to capture the entire population within 3-5 years and have a credible, reliable and easily accessible identity database.
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“By providing a universal, secure and nationally accepted means of identification, our people are empowered to exercise their basic rights, affirm their identity in an orderly manner, access services, claim their entitlements and benefit from social welfare programmes amongst many others. This system of identification will greatly help the work of our security and law enforcement agencies.”
“The federal government is looking beyond identity harmonization to data harmonization in the long run. The building blocks of achieving this is by uniquely identifying every individual so that he/she is consistently seen as one person by government irrespective of the agency visited or service demanded. One person, one identity for life.”
As of November 2019, the NIMC said 38 million Nigerians had been issued national identification numbers which is now a requirement for getting land registry documents, drivers licence and Nigerian passport.
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