Building National Identity System For Policy Making

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is charged with the
primary responsibility of collating and managing the identity of Nigerians as a
database for national development efforts.

Established by the NIMC Act No. 23 of 2007, the
commission has the mandate to build a dynamic system that will meet the needs
of the Nigerian society in terms of identity.

According to Section 32 of the Act, the commission is
also under obligation to wind up the activities of the defunct Department of
National Civic Registration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Six years after NIMC’s establishment, however, observers
have continued to ask how far the commission has performed in executing its
mandate to produce standard national identity cards for Nigerians.

In response to such queries, the Director General  of NIMC, Mr Chris Onyemenam, said that the
commission had prepared a good platform for the sustained production of
national identity cards for the citizens.

Citing the GSM operations in Nigeria as an illustration,
Onyemenam recalled that GSM operators had started to sell subscribers’ cards to
the people before effective operations commenced.

In the case of the NIMC, he added, the commission had
been creating permanent, temporary and mobile enrolment centres, equipped with
modern technology, for the issuance of identification numbers.

Onyemenam stressed that even though identity cards would
still be issued to registered citizens, the focus of the exercise had shifted
from just the issuance of identity cards to a holistic and continuous citizens’
identity management.

He said that a person’s identity would not only be
ascertained through the identity card but also via the identification number
that was issued to the person.

He added that the person’s identity could be established
through information from the database using his or her identification number.

Onyemenam, however, stressed that there was ongoing
enrolment of citizens on a pilot scale across the country.

“We are pretty sure that very soon, we would be looking
forward to the formal launch of the enrolment activity.

“When I refer to the launch of the enrolment activity
coming up shortly, I am saying that the pilot scheme would soon come to an end.

“As we speak, we have just enrolled more than 100,000
people and the next plan is to scale up our daily operations to 20,000
enrolments per day.

“We would continue to scale up to a minimum of 100,000
enrolments a day but 1,000,000 enrolments per day is what we are looking at,’’
he said.

Onyemenam explained that unlike the previous national
identity administration, the focus now was not only on card issuance alone but
on having a sustainable national identity scheme that could be well-managed.

On the possibility of making errors in the issuance of
identity cards, the director-general said that the new system, which was
digital, had minimal human input and a room for on-the-spot correction of
errors.

Onyemenam stressed that the commission was making
concerted efforts to ensure that only Nigerians were duly enrolled and issued
identity cards.

“We would institute various service schemes in citizens’
identity authentication and verification, which as far as the banking sector is
concerned, would help to mitigate the incidence of fraud.

“We can make deliberate policy plans and implement them
because it will be easier for one to say ‘I want to deal with this category of
citizens’, based on the available information from the database.

“Finally, it will come to a time when we will begin to
say ‘if you do not have your national identification number, these are the
benefits you will not be able to enjoy’; it then becomes a question of consumer
preference,’’ he said.

Onyemenam, who refused to divulge information on the
specific amount which the project would cost, said that the first 36 enrolment
centres and 50 million cards would be solely financed by the Federal
Government.

“Government approvals have been very consistent since
March 22, 2006; that’s the uniqueness of this project.

“However, whatever investment the government is making in
this project, it will recoup it over time because of the sustainability
arrangement that has been built around the project.

“Once that guarantee is there, I think what remains is
for us to be prudent and timely, so that the revenue recoup recapture can begin
to happen sooner than later,’’ he said.

Besides, Onyemenam disclosed that the current national
identity system would capture underage persons and Nigerians living abroad, adding
that this explained the rationale behind NIMC’s collaboration with the National
Population Commission (NPC) on the registration of babies.

He said that babies who were enrolled under the scheme
would be linked to their parents, adding, however, that when the babies were of
registration age, they would be issued identity cards.

“If we successfully start that scheme today, it means 16
years down the line, we would have covered the entire population once the
enrolment is carried out on a full basis.

“Hopefully at some point, the card issuance would be
further enlarged to cover those who are in primary schools.

“Of course, this requires legislative amendment and we
are planning to get that done in 2015.

“Nigerians living abroad can also enrol by going to an
enrolment centre to capture their demography and biometrics, although there is
an arrangement for a pre-enrolment portal on www.nimpnrol.gov.ng.’’

Onyemenam said that the portal provided a form which
people could fill online before going to an enrolment centre for biometrics
capture, including fingerprints and passport photograph.

All the same, observers urge the MIMC to ensure that its
fundamental responsibility of collating and managing the identity of Nigerians
is sustained so as to engender a purposeful national development.

Nwoko writes for News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN).