NIMC officials explain benefits of upcoming multipurpose national ID card

The Director of Card Management Services at Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Dr Peter Iwegbu, and the Head of Corporate Communication at the ID authority, Dr Kayode Adegoke, have outlined the numerous uses of a general multipurpose national ID card which shall roll out soon.

The two officials, speaking November 23, on a morning show on Channels TV said the card will be used for various financial transactions in a move that seeks to improve financial inclusion and Government-to-People payments in the country.

Their appearance on the TV program came exactly one year since the current NIMC Director General, Bisoye Coker-Odusote, took over the helm of the ID management agency.

“The general multipurpose card has so many use cases. It is premised on the NIN which is the foundational ID issued by the NIMC. When you see the benefits inherent in the card, you will have no option than to get the card,” said Adegoke.

“The uses are unlimited. For instance, it serves as a payment card. You can use the card to do financial transactions. It has a chip embedded in it. That is why it is being driven by the Central Bank of Nigeria through the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and a local partner. Also, NIMC is going to make an online portal available to apply for the card,” he added.

Adegoke further mentioned the importance of the card which shall be obtained through the banks. “Many other applications have been opened on the card, even for future use cases. The card is unique and is something that Nigerians must embrace. It has been streamlined in such a way that for both the public and the private sectors, the use cases can be applied. Not only at the federal government, but also at the level of state governments.”

Card will facilitate G2P payments

Speaking further on the card, Iwegbu said one of its purposes is to drive financial inclusion by bringing millions of excluded Nigerians into the financial ecosystem, as well as to facilitate government payments for social schemes.

“This means that the card can do exactly what your bank card would do for you: withdraw money, make payments on the web, transfer money, and so on. We are working with the banks and we are creating value for them. We are bringing to them over 100 million possible customers who they can bank with and have other relationships with.”

“Another thing is that the banks are already issuing their debit cards. What we are doing is to add to what they are issuing. You can only have the card from one bank, but it’s flexible so that you can change whenever you want.”

“We are also looking at how to issue these cards to people who do not have a banking relationship” he says. “We have another program which we call Government-to-People payment which is to ensure that government’s sector-specific grants are properly dispatched and accounted for.”

“If government wants to distribute palliatives to the less privileged, the card can be used to identity beneficiaries,” Adegoke corroborated.

The two officials said tests are still being done to ensure that everything is okay with the functionalities of the card before it can be rolled out to the general public.

Around 115 million Nigerians now have NIN

The TV outing was also a moment for the duo to make an appraisal of the state of ID issuance in Nigeria and the progress NIMC has made in the las year.

“We have done very well from our own assessment. We are making good progress although we still have a lot to do. We have close to 115 million Nigerians who have been issued the NIN and we are increasing this as the days go by. This means that the NIMC has enrolled around 15 million Nigerians in the last year,” Iwegbu mentioned.

“We are working to cover many more people in rural areas. We are working with local government agencies in these areas so that we can capture people who are yet to be captured. We are also making efforts to enroll more children in schools by building partnerships with schools.”

Debt owed Front End Partners just completed

One key information disclosed by Adegoke during the chat is that as of November 22, all the money owed Front End Partners (FEPs) involved in the NIN enrollment process has been cleared.

Recall that this month, some of the FEPs had petitioned the senate over the debts and the NIMC DG was to be summoned to face a senate committee over the matter.

“Before she came on board, they had not been paid for two years. She took it upon herself to approach the funding partners, to push for the partners to be paid. She went through the rudiments; did all she needed to do. So, all the money owed them has been cleared. We are not owing a Kobo [least denomination of the Nigerian currency],” Adegoke declared.

Anomalies identified in data handling for driver’s license renewals

In a Nigeria ID related development, an audit has exposed how the personal data of people applying for the renewal of their driver’s licenses with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) is mishandled.

The audit from the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation indicates that such data is handled by a third party entity instead of the FRSC itself due a weak internal control system, as reported by The Nigeria Lawyer.

The report notes that the handling of data by third parties is a non-compliant practice that is taking operational cost up, while also putting people’s data and privacy in danger of violation. There have also been concerns about data handling by the NIMC in the recent past.

The audit calls on the FRSC to provide evidence that it is adhering to requirements of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulations on data management.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  identity document  |  identity management  |  multi-purpose national ID card  |  National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)  |  Nigeria