The Director General of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Barr Chris Onyemenam who disclosed this in Abuja at the stakeholder's workshop on Biometrics, Demographics Data Standards and Verification Procedures for the National Identity Management System (NIMS) said the commission is targeting more than 150 million Nigerians for registration in the pilot six locations.
He said, "during the presentation of this scheme, six locations were identified, the locations was supposed to start on Wednesday but we have formal arrangement for all of them to start at the same time so that the process once started will not stop, it is a pilot that is in a way an initial take off beginning from these six locations because from pilot we get to the real thing.
"Already we have concluded every thing and we are currently testing under what we call the development environment, the pilot and going live will be under the production environment so that whatever goes in there will no longer be retrieved, that is why everything we are doing now is under development environment. Since the board will meet very soon, by the first week of next month we will start", he added.
The commission he said is now shifting focus from issuance of identity card to management of identifies, adding that now newly married people can now update their data which they could not do before now also there is a disaster recovering centre that is also in place to support this system that will provide 24 hours in seven days identity verification services.
He said the National Identification Number (NIN) which NIMC is issuing now is a 9-digit number that is unique to each Nigerian that has registered with NIMC; the NIN is assigned to an individual at the time of the initial registration with NIMC.
NIN he said is associated with a single set of biometrics belonging to the subject (Individual) that has been assigned the NIN. "NIN is not the same as the National ID card number which may expire, discontinued or be re-assigned. Only the NIMC can assign the 9-digit to a subject, Once NIN is assigned to a subject; it can never be changed or altered in any form. NIN does not expire and is valid for the entire life span of the subject biometrics that it was assigned to".
Onyemenam said NIN shall be the basis of which the federal, state and local government shall interact with a citizen of Nigeria, each ministry, agency, regulatory body and entities must tie an individual to a NIN before services can be rendered to the individual. You cannot role more than once and you cannot have more than one identity number.
He enumerated the magnitude of challenges in identity management in the country and how the commission plans to tackle the burdens and restore sanity in the nation's identity sector.
NIMC boss said the challenges facing the scheme include multiple identification initiatives by institutions such as Pension commission, land registers, Federal Inland Revenue Services, SIM registrars, law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, the Independent National Electoral Commission, Immigrations, Federal Road Safety Corps and several others who have to embark on their own personal registration and in the absence of core identity sector infrastructure.
In his words, "we are looking to using the database by INEC, Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), like I said we have been involved in that two processes with a view to ensuring that harmonization which is the reason for our being here today can be achieved and we can also utilize our data, that would be done over time, our target is that over the next 30 months we will achieve that. The Act also provides for those aged 16 and above as well as for death and death registration, it will also take care of the special people with special needs.
"You know that at the last population count, national population commission estimated the population at over 146 million and we believe that for the purposes of achieving financial inclusion and making this infrastructure very useful, we need to take in as many people as possible, an infrastructure is built to accommodate over hundred and fifty (150) million people".
Recall that in May, 2007, the NIMC Act established the commission and provided the legal framework for the reforms in the sector. The reform mandate includes collecting basic demographic and biometric data, creating, operating and managing a National Identity Database, Providing an on-line/off line cost effective verification and authentication infrastructure in Nigeria, integrating with ID schemes, providing standardized identity attributes and fostering the orderly development of an identity sector in the country.
The benefits of the scheme Onyemenam said include streamlining biometric linked projects in the public and private sector, eliminating multiple and ghost identities, reducing identity theft and related fraud , enhancing the work of law enforcement agencies, financial inclusion and development of financial service sector, creating new economic and employment opportunities amongst others.
He said the scheme is part of federal government desire to develop and deepen the consumer credit sector, facilitate the enforcement of existing /extant laws and meet global practices, facilitate financial inclusion and development of commerce generally, harmonization of identification schemes committee in 2005.
The workshop he said is an attempt to present to the general public the policy documents in the draft that they are now which has been worked upon by the committee and that committee consist of representatives of all these institutions ranging from the intelligence, financial communities and the whole lots of them.
"This is an attempt to let the public know that this is going to be put in place and it will help the regulatory functions of the commission, this workshop in order words is about selling that set of policy document which is meant to get inputs from the public so that the consultative process we have in the commission will be properly followed to the logical conclusion", he said.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Onyinyechi Udemezue
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 20.05.2011
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