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Nigeria is discarding paper ID for only digital process in its national identification and registration of citizens. The citizens’database will also have the DNA component of all citizens for easily variable identification.
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, told State House correspondents, this week in Abuja, that digital identification consisting of unique numbers are now the only means of uniquely identifying Nigerian citizens or status of residents in the country.
The national database will feature the DNA component of each citizen, Aregbesola and the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, told the media after leading members of the committee on Citizen Data Management and Harmonisation to present their report to the President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Presidential Villa.
The World Bank is funding part of Nigeria’s citizens’ digital identification project making it mandatory for the country to harmonise citizens data sitting across separate servers of various agencies.
The harmonisation process allows only the National Identity Management Commission (MIMC) to manage the central citizens data accessible by all authorised agencies.
“The card is just for convenience the real thing is the number you have, with that number you are on the databank, everything about you is there,” said Aregbesola.
“We are just upgrading it such that your DNA too will be there very soon,” he added.
According to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, “Our focus is no longer on producing cards. That card is only for record but what is important is the digital ID and if you notice, we have started using the digital ID on the international passport. Once you have the digital ID but not the card, we are 100 percent done with you.”
The Director General of the NIMC, Aliyu Aziz, who is also a member of the committee, stressed that the country was no longer using paper or card ID as proof of identity.
His words: “We have found that this card is strenuous, it is forex that is going out of the country and we are in the 21st century and that is why we are focusing on national identification number and other identifications by other agencies have been linked to NIMC.”
“With your national ID, you are already identified. In the US, it is called a social security number, the same with the UK”
The digital ID can control more than 1.3 billion people in about seven minutes, according the NIMC’s boss.
Pantami whose ministry has the mandate to lead the ‘Digital Nigeria’ agenda said the country was focusing on digitalising the entire process of government architecture including citizens’ database.
His words: “Our priority now is the digital ID. It will be attached to your database wherever you are. So if you can memorize it by heart, wherever you go, that central database domiciled with NIMC will be able to provide the number and every one of your data will be provided.”
