Jonathan launches electronic National ID card

President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday directed all Federal Government’s ministries, agencies and departments to unify their biometric data capture operations with the National Electronic Identity Card (e-ID Card) scheme.

Jonathan gave the directive while launching the issuance process of the e-ID card at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He was  issued with his own card, which features a credit card-style chip with personal as well as biometric data and doubles up as a prepaid charge and debit card.

A number of Nigerian government agencies, from the police to the Independent National Electoral Commission, have embarked on their own separate ID card schemes.

But Jonathan said the plan was to eventually include details such as driving licence, health insurance, tax and pension information on the single card.

“The regime of duplication of biometric databases must now have to give way to harmonisation and unification with the e-ID scheme, which shall be the primary database,” he told reporters.

Only 32 percent of Nigeria’s adult population are thought to have bank accounts, according to a 2012 study.

Nigeria’s central bank has been pushing for a move away from cash to electronic payments and has trialled a scheme in the financial capital, Lagos, with the help of private partners.

But the pilot project has not been plain sailing, with retailers and customers often facing frequent power supply and connectivity problems that slowed down transactions.

The cards will be available initially to Nigerians aged 16 and older and all residents in the country for more than two years.

Cardholders will be given a unique national identification number and have to provide fingerprint data, a photo and digital signature to cut the risk of fraud and embezzlement.

The scheme has so far cost about seven billion naira ($42.5 million, 32 million euros), according to the National Identity Management Commission.

Financial services firm MasterCard, the scheme’s payment technology provider, said 13 million cards would be available in the first phase, with more than 100 million to be issued in total.

“Nigeria is ready for this,” the firm’s head of Sub-Saharan African operations, Daniel Mohin, told AFP.

“Nigeria has been left out of electronic financial payment for decades but now Nigeria is saying we want to take our rightful place in payment. There has not been a project of this magnitude… that’s been rolled out at this scale.”

At the launch, President Jonathan directed the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to issue the card to all federal public servants and pensioners for “speedy and safe payment of salaries and pensions’’.

Toward this, he urged the commission to collaborate with the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPS) and Pension Department.

He added that the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) should also ensure immediate compliance with the directive.

“The regime of duplication of biometric data bases must now have to give way to harmonisation and unification with the e-ID scheme, which shall be the primary data base.

 “The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, and the Governor of the CBN should immediately key in.

“They should, in conjunction with NIMC, reach modalities for the harmonisation of their biometric projects, including other ongoing projects in other MDAs, with the e-ID card scheme,” Jonathan said.  

According to him, proliferation and duplication of efforts is neither cost effective, nor security-smart.

The head of state was issued with his own card, which features a credit card-style chip with personal as well as biometric data and doubles up as a prepaid charge and debit card.

“I’m quite pleased today that with the NIMC’s success story, we are moving forward as a nation. Everybody talks about change, and I always say that it is not possible to just wake up and change. A change is a vector quantity; you must have the magnitude and the direction.

“I have taken keen interest in this project, primarily because of the pervasive impact it can have on every facet of the socio-economic fabric of our dear nation. This is in sync with the transformation agenda of my government,’’ he said.

The Director-General of NIMC, Mr Chris Onyemenam, said that the national e-ID Card was a multi-purpose instrument for identification, electronic signatures, biometric on-card verification and other applications.

Onyemenam stated that the card had five applications already activated at issuance, with a built-in capacity to host more applications on request.

He listed the first phase of applications as local and regional travel, electronic identification of Nigerians, and identification, authentication and digital signatures.

Others are biometric verification as well as banking application, including deposit, withdrawal, payment, transfer and inquiry.