Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is planning to unveil an extensive document on the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) blueprint for Nigeria shortly.
The document is part of Nigeria’s efforts to involve the country in the new digital economy for provision of quality services on security technologies.
Vanguard reports PKI is a collection of guidelines and procedures for addressing, using cryptography, authentication, non-repudiation and access control in data communication.
According to Prof Cleopas Angaye, NITDA Director General, the blueprint will provide quality service which Nigerians have been expecting for a long time.
He said that once PKI has been implemented, it will create digital signatures to show those involved in particular tasks in order to curb electronic transaction crimes.
Applications, document management system, online line vat returns, registration, e-procurement, import/export community/customs, police, judiciary details, online tax filing, land records, online/mobile banking and education are areas of application of PKI technology.
“Nigeria cannot be left behind in this emerging scenario especially if we intend to realise the goal of Vision 2020, which is to be among the top 20 economies in the world by the year 2020, and also with the rate of uncontrolled use of cyberspace for communication, transactions etc, it has become become imperative to develop a sustainable and secure platform for cyber accessibility, secured transaction and credible identity,” he said.
Angaye added PKI is the only technology to enable privacy of various documents and integrity of digitally signed data.
“So PKI is uniquely suited to complex transaction environments, where there might be multiple relying parties, structured data, formal authorizations, and/or long lifetimes. KPI is the only technology that satisfies the privacy authentication integrity and nonrepudiation principle of security,” he said.
