Nigeria: Private sector to help with reaching targets for ID registration
Published: 26/Sep/2019
Source: Biometric Update
Nigerian authorities are turning to the private sector to help reach an aim of signing up 50 million people a year, the head of identity commission told Bloomberg in an interview.
Despite registration efforts dating back to the 1980s, only around 38 percent of Nigerians have any form of ID, something the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is seeking to address with the recently announced $433 million in funding from the World Bank, EU and others.
NIMC head Aliyu Aziz told Bloomberg, “We have a thousand data centers across Nigeria, it’s not enough capacity to capture and provide identification for about 200 million Nigerians and non-Nigerians. This is why we are partnering with private sector and government agencies.”
NIMC is launching a new digital platform in the next few days in collaboration with the private sector and other government agencies. Registration is becoming critical as the government intends to go ahead with enforcing this year the requirement for a National Identity Number for accessing other government services such as passport applications.
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