National Identity Smart Cards will soon be issued to 13 million Nigerians to replace traditional identification documents (IDs).
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and MasterCard announced the intended launch at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Cape Town, South Africa, yesterday (Thursday).
The enhanced identity cards will form part of the National Identity Management System (NIMS) with an added electronic payment capability.
Equipped with a financial transaction feature, Nigerians will now be enabled to pay through their IDs.
“This will have significant and positive impacts on the lives of these Nigerians who have not previously had access to financial services,” MasterCard said.
According to the pilot program’s first phase, Nigerians over the age of 16 with a citizenship of more than two years will receive the 13 application-rich card.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and coordinating minister for the economy in Nigeria, said: “This program is good practice for us to bring all the citizens on a common platform for interacting with the various government agencies and for transacting electronically.”
Okonji-Iweala explained the initiative will be rolled out with the focus on partnerships between the public and private sectors.
Hereby maximum potential achievement and effective governance will be aspired to as the country migrates to operate on electronic platform.
Seven banks have been drawn into the project, with Unified Payment Services Limited (Unified Payments) as processor and Access Bank Plc as the pilot issuers.
Apart from the financial benefits, identification advantages will also be promoted as demographic and biometric details are required for application.
Biometric information recorded on the card will include 10 fingerprints, a facial picture and a digital signature which will aid in diminishing fraud.
The data, together with other authentication and verification propositions, will be stored on the National Identity Database.
The National ID registration by the NIMC aims to supply more than 100 million cards to the 167 million strong population of Nigeria.
