Monday 27 October 2014

Experts condemn centralised identity scheme, urge review of NIMC act


Chuks Udo Okonta

To resolve Nigeria’s lingering identity management challenge, strident calls were made by experts at the 2014 annual lecture of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) for the review of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Act which promotes centralisation in place of multi-layered identity assurance scheme.

Centralisation, in the views of experts drawn from technology, banking, insurance and the academia, is the albatross of Nigeria’s dithering identity management programme. Describing Nigeria’s failure at citizen identity assurance as frustrating, Chief Joseph Sanusi, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said “Establishing a national database and identifying the Nigerian has been on the front burner as far as 20 years ago. It is embarrassing that we have not reached that stage. All other countries have gotten it done.”

Keynote speaker at the annual lecture themed, “Identity Management: A catalyst for the new economic and financial service transformation”, Demola Aladekomo, Managing Director of Chams Plc and identity management pioneer, made a case for a multi-dimensional approach to identity management which is global best practise. “No system depends on a single point of failure such as single national database to meet all identity assurance needs. We need to cross reference several databases to be able to really ascertain who is who. No single database can do this. We need multiple databases which are integrated into the national database as obtains in other countries.”

Reacting to the keynote address, Chris Onyemena, Director of NIMC who was a panellist at the annual lecture, said “It is provided in the constitution that biometric data is an exclusive legislative item. Only the Federal Government can do it. In this country, we know that some states went ahead to create their own laws to provide for residency cards. The federal government after years of limited success and failures established the National Identity Management Commission vested with the authority to keep biometric information of all Nigerians and the provision for legal residence, whether you are in the private sector or public sector. That is the position of the law.”

 

Affirming the benefits of multi-layered approach to identity management, Professor Ibidapo Obe, former Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos (UNILAG) urged Nigeria to take learnings from the United States of America where there is a hierarchy of authority and systems in identity management to ensure that we resolve our teething national identity challenge. Professor Obe recalled the State of Texas meeting his identity assurance needs including issuance of a driver’s license and identity card which would have been impossible if identity assurance was centralised in the United States. In conclusion, he alluded to the state of disrepair of the Nigerian Railway Corporation because the same law states that nobody can run a railway except the federal government.

On her part, Mrs. Rosemary Oluwanisola, Bank Examiner at Nigeria Deposit Insurance Commission (NDIC), said “I agree that the issue of identity management is a constitutional issue because government should take responsibility for identifying Nigerians, but how long is it going to take government to get this done. First quarter of the year, we were mobilised by NDIC to be part of biometric capture for the national identity scheme, today we are still waiting for the outcome of that process. But today, I have my Bank Verification Number (BVN). Let us not confuse effort for results.”

In a similar vein, expressing disenchantment with the centralisation of biometric data for identity management, Bolaji Agbola, Executive Director, Cashcraft Asset Management Limited, said “NIMC should assume the regulatory role and free market for concessionaires to operate so that we can have the national identity card.

For instance, in the last six months, I have been trying to procure driver’s license without success. We need to decentralise all of this, and empower the private sector to do it. If the NIMC law is defective let us change it. The NIMC DG is looking at the issue from the legal point of view, we want it but for two weeks we were locked up to make an identity card without a signature which is useless.

India, they have registered about 70 per cent of their of their population. What other nations are doing let us benchmark them and make progress.”

 

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