The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) on Monday began to sensitise the prospective data collection service providers on enrolment processes to develop foundational ID system built on inclusion, design and governance.
Mr Aliyu Aziz, the Director-General of the commission led the sensitisation team at the pre-bid conference for prospective data collection service providers in Abuja.
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Aziz said that the commission and its partners would utilize the ecosystem approach to develop the foundational ID that is hinged on universal coverage and accessibility.
According to him, the commission will as well create a robust, secure, responsive and sustainable ID system, building trust by protecting privacy and user rights.
“The world is focusing on Digital Identity as can be seen in the Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 (providing legal identity for all, including birth registration by 2030). This means that we have just about 11 years to the deadline.
“This requires the full collaboration, commitment and support of all stakeholders including all the participants at this programme,’’ he said.
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He reiterated the commission’s readiness to partner with relevant stakeholders to ensure the capturing of Nigerians and legal residents into its database by 2030 using the `Digital Identity Ecosystem Project’.
The DG said that the aim of initiating Digital Identity Ecosystem Project was to leverage on the capacities and capabilities of public and private sector organisations in achieving digital ID roll out and scale within five years.
He said that the Commission has successfully registered and issued unique IDs to about 38 million Nigerians out of the country’s population estimated to 187 million.
Aziz added that the commission has 1,000 registration centres across the country.
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According to him, the country has been on the journey to provide identification for all Nigerian citizens and legal residents for some years now.
“So as to enable government and service providers to verify individual’s identity on demands and at point of service delivery.
“Nigeria’s existing foundational identification systems, which comprised of the National ID system and Civil Registration suffer from low coverage across the population and the Federal Government incurs significant costs due to fragment identification landscape.
“As part of the plan to address these challenges, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had in September 2018 approved the strategic roadmap for accelerating Digital ID development in Nigeria with the assistance of three development partners.
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“ The vision laid out in the strategic roadmap was to leverage the capacities and capabilities of public and private sector organisations in achieving digital ID roll out and scale within five years,’’ he added.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Digital Identity Ecosystem is a framework involving NIMC working with public and private service-providing partners to create an enabling environment for the effective and efficient mass enrolment of Nigerians.
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It will also capture legal residents in Nigeria into a centralized secure National Identity Database; where digital identities are issued to everyone in the form of the National Identification Number (NIN).
The initiative aims at improving identity authentication of citizens and makes all identity-related transactions safe within and outside the country.
