New call for Nigerian president to make digital ID funding a priority

It is time for Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to make a substantial increase to the funds allocated to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) – the government agency overseeing the country’s legal and digital identity program, a civil society organization says.

In a press conference late last month in Abuja, the CEO of the Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights (CASER), Frank Tietie, said increasing the NIMC budget will enable the agency better execute its digital ID issuance mission, which is crucial for Nigeria’s socio-economic planning and development, reports The Cable.

Nigeria’s digital ID program has funding from a number of multilateral partners including the World Bank under the Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative which supports identity projects in developing countries.

Tietie hailed the role of the NIMC in the collection, streamlining and management of identity data, adding that if well-funded, the body will be able to make reliable data available for all government agencies that require it for authentication and verification purposes.

The availability of reliable identity data, he underlined will “make life better for the Nigerian citizen” and make it possible for both “government and international development partners to have correct data to assess for planning and execution of policies and programs.”

The CASER CEO also had kind words for the new NIMC Director General, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, lauding some of her innovations such as the introduction of the “one card,” a policy intended to facilitate ID verification for government services and financial inclusion.

The official said the innovation will not only streamline ID verification, but will also assist in the allocation of state resources as well as in the fight against insecurity currently rocking many parts of the country.

The call from CASER for Nigeria to allocate more resources to the NIMC comes just months after the immediate past CEO of the ID-issuing authority, Aliyu Aziz, made a similar suggestion.

Aziz posited last October that with adequate funding, Nigeria will be able to “open enrollment centers in each LGA, provide adequate power to all centers for effective enrollment, print and deliver all current outstanding cards, and deploy full verification and authentication infrastructure and services nationwide to enable government agencies and businesses to verify individuals’ identities.”

Nigeria has enrolled more than 104 million citizens in its digital ID database as of the close of 2023, and looks forward to meeting a World Bank target of 148 million registrations sometime this year.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  national ID  |  National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)  |  Nigeria