A progress report has suggested Nigeria could achieve “full digital identity in the next three years”, the office of the Vice president has said.
It comes amid ongoing efforts to get all identity-related agencies to harmonise their databases.
The progress report was presented to Vice president Yemi Osinbajo last week.
Prof Osinbajo while commending the effort of the inter-ministerial committee handling the project, stressed the importance of a unique digital National Identity Number (NIN) for Nigerians, expressing expectations that the programme would be completed on time.
“We await the completion of this task with expectations,” the Vice President noted while also appreciating the support of development partners including the World Bank, French Development Agency (Agence Française De Développement, AFD) both of whom are supporting the programme.
Lanre Osibona, a senior special assistant to the president on ICT who coordinates the programme, said the identity harmonisation programme is critical to a number of policies and initiatives being implemented by the Buhari administration.
“If you look at it in terms of our programme on social safety nets, financial inclusion, the need to develop a digital economy that supports e-commerce, e-payment/e-transactions and other innovations, identity is a critical aspect, so this is very key for us – to make sure that we can capture every Nigerian,” he said.
Also commenting the Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, Engr Aliyu Aziz stated that the commission is now close to achieving harmonization of 30 million identities on its system.
He explained that the focus for now and in the next three years would be on numbers – to give digital identification (NIN) rather than the issuance of permanent identification cards to Nigerians.
According to him, “with the new approach, the ecosystem approach, it has been agreed that all agencies of government providing functional identity will work with NIMC in a collaborative manner so that it can move quickly to cover the whole population. The timeline to cover the whole population is about three years.”
In this effort the World Bank has offered to support Nigeria in the development of the ID system that works for the people, having agreed to embrace the Strategic Roadmap that ensures seamless processing of unique identity numbers for Nigerians.
According to Rachid Benmessaoud, World Bank Country Director for Nigeria who was also at the meeting “the World Bank Group is pleased to support the Federal Government of Nigeria in its goal of achieving universal digital identification for Nigeria.”
He said the bank is grateful for the leadership of the Vice President in bringing all the concerned agencies around a strategic roadmap for the development and implementation of a common, robust ID platform for effective access to services.”
