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Nigeria has launched virtual National Identification Number (NIN) tokens to make information retrieval for citizen identification process easier and more efficient in a way that further broadens government’s increasing shift to digital economy.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, revealed this at a stakeholders’ workshop on the ‘NIN Tokenization Solution’ organised by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) this week in Abuja.
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The virtual NIN is a tokenised version of a person’s actual NIN, which another party verifying the number cannot retain and use in a way that puts the individual’s data privacy at risk. It expires 72 hours after being generated.
Nigerians can use the virtual NIN when verifying their identity with an agent or organisation that needs to confirm their identity before offering them a service (banks, airports, shopping delivery, among others).
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Pantami said the government adopted the solution to ensure the privacy of personal identifiable information of individuals during verification transactions and to reduce incidences of illegal retrieval, usage, transfer, and storage of NIN.
“The Federal Government has adopted the solution to ensure the privacy of personally identifiable information of individuals during verification transactions and to reduce incidences of illegal retrieval, usage, transfer, and storage of NIN. Full implementation commences 1st January 2022,” said Pantami who was represented at the event by Director General of NIMC, Aliyu Aziz.
He said “the NIN Tokenization solution is a feature of the NIN Verification Service (NVS) which is aimed at providing enhanced data protection for the personal information of persons registered into the National Identity Database (NIDB) and issued a NIN.”
He added: “One of the benefits of the virtual NIN is to ensure no third party may carry out any verification, hiding behind a proxy (and without the knowledge of the NIMC, being the Custodian of Identity).
“And also generated Token or Virtual NIN is unintelligent, completely random with no correlation to the NIN and cannot be reverse engineered, even by a Quantum Computer.”
Also speaking, the Technical Consultant of NIMC, Tunji Durodola, said the Digital Token was designed to replace the 11-digit NIN for every usage for everyday usage.
He said NIN had been shared and stored by various entities mostly without the knowledge consent or consent of the ID holder or the custodian of identity in Nigeria, NIMC.
To get the virtual NIN, a person must have a NIN issued by NIMC, a mobile number registered in Nigeria and linked to your NIN.
It can be generated via the MWS: NIMC MobileID app or via USSD (*346*3*YourNIN*AgentCode#)
