Chris Onyemenan)
The National Identity Management Commission has commenced the
enrolment of Nigerians in Mexico as part of its grand plan to register
all the nation's citizens in Diaspora.
The Director-General and the Chief Executive Officer, NIMC, Mr. Chris
Onyemenam, said this at the Nigeria-South Africa Chamber of Commerce
breakfast forum in Lagos.
A statement by the commission on Friday quoted the DG as saying from
inception till date, about 5.5 million people had been registered on
the NIMC database, adding that there were plans to make the enrolment
mandatory for every citizen.
He said the harmonisation of the identity management system with 14
government agencies had been achieved by ensuring that the executives
of the agencies were members of the board of directors of the NIMC.
The director-general said after an identity card with 13 applets had
been issued, five of the applets would be activated immediately.
According to him, the electronic identity card will have its e-ID,
international travel, biometrics, payment solution and the Electronic
Public Key Infrastructure applets activated when issued to owners.
He added that agencies such as the National Pension Commission,
Corporate Affairs Commission, Nigerian Police Force, Nigerian
Communication Commission, National Health Insurance Scheme, and
National Population Commission had formed partnership with the NIMC.
In the financial services sector, he said an agreement had been
reached with the Central Bank of Nigerian and modalities and processes
were already in place to use the national identity number as a
requirement for obtaining a Bank Verification Number.
Onyemenam said that the agency had been able to provide a virtual
payment solution that guaranteed security of funds through its
partnership with MasterCard, Visacard and Verve.
The DG said, "It also means that financial credit institutions can
lend credit facilities to individuals, and what that means is a
gradual shift from emphasis and focusing on cash to credit, which is
expected to drive the economy.
"Another important one is the financial inclusion strategy. If you
have no financial inclusion strategy based on a unique identity, you
will never get it right. To get it right, therefore, we need a
national identity management that can guarantee security and
infrastructure to confirm the identity. We have not only provided that
infrastructure, we have provided a virtual payment solution."
Highlighting the benefits of the harmonisation with the government
agencies, Onyemenam said terrorism, money laundering, crime could
easily be detected.
He explained, "Harmonisation can help law enforcement agencies to
focus on trends and undergo more accurate criminal profiling and drug
trafficking trends. The duplication process provided by the NIMC
solution ensures transport infrastructure, the identification of every
individual can be leveraged by the government."
--PUNCH
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