The Nigerian National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and MasterCard today announced at the World Economic Forum on Africa the roll-out of 13 million MasterCard-branded National Identity Smart Cards with electronic payment capability as a pilot program. The National Identity Smart Card is the Card Scheme under the recently deployed National Identity Management System (NIMS). This program is the largest roll-out of a formal electronic payment solution in the country and the broadest financial inclusion initiative of its kind on the African continent.

As part of the program, in its first phase, Nigerians 16 years and older, and all residents in the country for more than two years, will get the new multipurpose identity card which has 13 applications including MasterCard’s prepaid payment technology that will provide cardholders with the safety, convenience and reliability of electronic payments. This will have a significant and positive impact on the lives of these Nigerians who have not previously had access to financial services.

The Project will have Access Bank Plc as the pilot issuer bank for the cards and Unified Payment Services Limited (Unified Payments) as the payment processor. Other issuing banks will include United Bank for Africa, Union Bank, Zenith, Skye Bank, Unity Bank, Stanbic, and First Bank.

The announcement was witnessed by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy in Nigeria, who stressed the importance of the National Identity Smart Card Scheme in moving Nigeria to an electronic platform. 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. We will implement this initiative in a collaborative manner between the public and private sectors, to achieve its full potential of inclusive citizenship and more effective governance,” she said.

“Today’s announcement is the first phase of an unprecedented project in terms of scale and scope for Nigeria,” said Michael Miebach, President, Middle East and Africa, MasterCard. “MasterCard has been a firm supporter of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Cashless Policy as we share a vision of a world beyond cash. From the program’s inception, we have provided the Federal Government of Nigeria with global insights and best practices on how electronic payments can enable economic growth and create a more financially inclusive economy”.

Chris ‘E Onyemenam, the Director General and Chief Executive of the National Identity Management Commission, said “We have chosen MasterCard to be the payment technology provider for the initial rollout of the National Identity Smart Card project because the Company has shown a commitment to furthering financial inclusion through the reduction of cash in the Nigerian economy.” He added “MasterCard has pioneered large scale card schemes that combine biometric functionality with electronic payments and we want to capitalize on their experience in this field to make our program rollout a sustainable success for the country and for the continent.”

“Access Bank’s involvement in this project is testament to our ongoing efforts to expand financial inclusion in Nigeria,” said Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, CEO of Access Bank. “The new identity card will revolutionize the Nigerian economic landscape, breaking down one of the most significant barriers to financial inclusion – proof of identity, while simultaneously providing Nigerians with a world class payment solution”.

“Unified Payments is the foremost transaction processor and pioneer of EMV processing and acquiring in Nigeria, owned by leading Nigerian banks. We will use our expertise and experience to guarantee the success of the project and ensure that the data of Nigerians are protected. We look forward to working with other partners in delivering value to all stakeholders’’, said Agada Apochi, Managing Director and CEO, Unified Payments.

The new National Identity Smart Card will incorporate the unique National Identification Numbers (NIN) of duly registered persons in the country. The enrollment process involves the recording of an individual’s demographic data and biometric data (capture of 10 fingerprints, facial picture and digital signature) that are used to authenticate the cardholder and eliminate fraud and embezzlement. The resultant National Identity Database will provide the platform for several other value propositions of the NIMC including identity authentication and verification.

Thanks to the unique and unambiguous identification of individuals under the NIMS, other identification card schemes like the Driver’s License, Voters Registration, Health Insurance, Tax, SIM and the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) will benefit and can all be integrated, using the NIN, into the multi-function Card Scheme of the NIMS. When fully utilizing the card as a prepaid payment tool, the cardholder can deposit funds on the card, receive social benefits, pay for goods and services at any of the 35 million MasterCard acceptance locations globally, withdraw cash from all ATMs that accept MasterCard, or engage in many other financial transactions that are facilitated by electronic payments. All in a secure and convenient environment enabled by the EMV Chip and Pin standard.

Upon completion of the National ID registration process, NIMC aims to introduce more than 100 million cards to Nigeria’s 167 million citizens.

http://www.newsroom.mastercard.com/press-releases/mastercard-to-power-nigerian-identity-card-program/

This is very nice and a welcomed development, once this is done then the unique identity can be extended to all other identity services within the federation.

Someone edit this stuff and lets have it at the front page.
It makes a lot of sense. This is what I talk about in technology,
really disruptive, you cant predict it. Some businesses on its
way would have to bow. Its like that.

This is excellent. Super excellent.
Finally we have thinking people in Government.
This single act will slash corruption by civil service officials by more than 50%.

Let me give a practical example. The official cost of obtaining an international passport is 8,000 Naira.
But if you go to any passport office, youll pay 20,000 Naira. 12,000 Naira goes to the immigration officers.
The same extortion is found in tax offices,License office and everyother thing that civil servants operate.

This card and the attractiveness of making it a debit card also is just sweet!! Partnering wiuth mastercard is another very sweet move!

^^

It will also help Nigerians to transact business online as there will not be any case of fraud when paying with this card. The sad thing is that this process has been going on when i visited the website but there is lack of awareness or drive for people to go and obtain their NIN.

I am so happy for this and the potentials or opportunities that lies with it but we need to invest and upgrade technologically for this to be very effective. All those partners, agencies important point of identity usage need to upgrade and integrate into this system.

Some of them are good to go like our banks, telecom companies but the others need considerable investment in IT and adequate training to make this work. I am talking about the ones that do not have the technological infrastructure to key in at the moment.


The police for crime fighting
Immigration for border control and all that
The hospitals for proper health care delivery
Road safety for proper drivers licensing and transport management
FIRs for Taxation etc
INEC for proper voting registration
NPC for census and other demographic statistics
Education management waec, Jamb and enrollment issues.
Nipost for proper addressing system and identification.
pension board so we don't get the recurring verification exercise
CAC for proper company registration.

We should do all these and ensure that you cannot do anything without a NIN, then the issue of ghost workers will be greatly reduced and different kind of frauds.

Laudable move,lets hope it is implemented properly.


Btw anyone notice the height of the lady on the sample card? 6.5M, she's a giant. (_{I know the details supplied are fictitious but still. . .)}

If they must include a passport photo on the card then let it be something presentable, they may also wish to add some other vital data.

^^

It is mostly the same data captured as with the international passport process but they can include more to make it far reaching. Also from their website there will be three document identification to proof your address, date of birth and identity.

The process is ongoing right now and there are one location for each state of the federation, the one in Lagos is at alausa. They made mention of mobile centers but no info about that from their website and also if the Nigerian embassies can register Nigerians living abroad.

These would be great as it would create good image for us as online fraud by Nigerians will reduce

If it is not politicised and tribalised.

Brilliante!!

more push to the cashless society...3-in-1

Hope the politicians will not derail the program.

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Good one MasterCard.
Enough deals on the ground.
Now, i know the reason why you are looking for Business Leaders, Govt services. More hands to manage the new relationship.

Aig-Imokhuede I hail you sir. Time to acquire more Access shares. This guy sure knows how to play his politics.

Nice development. I pray this wil come 2 past....

effisyman: If it is not politicised and tribalised.

They all have good presentation skills but poor
implementation ... !!!


Laudable scheme ......God Help them to get it Right ........ !!!!

I pray it should be of great value to our country

This is a great and good idea for Nigerians, but my own addition to this is that he would have made this card possible for it to be an international ID too.

RiKKies001: Hope the politicians will not derail the program.

we pray they don't, God is in control.

dw_koko: This is a great and good idea for Nigerians, but my own addition to this is that he would have made this card possible for it to be an international ID too.

if you're travelling outside the country you'll have your passport on you already so...

I just hope the cards will be of high quality, ahmadu bello university did similar thin with the student I'd in collobration with intercontinetal bank. But after a year, it was cancelled. Very poor quality,the pics quickly faded,to make trasanction with it was a problem. We all know nigerian atm cards are not durable. Well since master card are involve, there is hope. We wouldn't want to hear another polymer notes saga.

Talk is cheap...

I'm thrilled.

I wish this card could also serve as a drivers license, imagine after registering and paying for my drivers license since March I still haven't been given a date to come "capture". This country is sickening.

Whatever happened to the last national identity card scheme? Did that work?

I really hope that security is factored into the development of this card from the beginning. It would be terrible if this gave room for identity theft on a national scale. I for one am afraid for those who would have to use this technology because one keeps hearing about the thefts of customer information round the world. One can easily imagine the information for 30 million Nigerians being stolen and used for nefarious purposes round the world.

Will paypal and other services that doesn’t accept Nigerians on their website accept Nigerians because of this card?

onandon: I wish this card could also serve as a drivers license, imagine after registering and paying for my drivers license since March I still haven't been given a date to come "capture". This country is sickening.

It is not done that way, assuming this card was in operation then your NIN number is what the agency issuing the drivers license would have used to verify the data capture for the national ID and no need to redo another one with them.

Only one data capture to serve them all within a country and that is how it is obtainable the world over.

No wonda the new Head of NIMC immediately he came in, insisted on sacking about 4000 'dead woods' in his organisatn and employing a few thousand young and savvy people. Even when the old workers tried blackmailing him by dragging b4 d NA and other places, he insisted on d Rightness of his actions. He insistd cos he had a vision, a BIG one apparently; it sure isn't too difficult to spot someone who knows where he is going..... This is simply one of the MOST PROFOUND developments in the history of this nation if seen to its conclusion. The many benefits is all encompassing; affecting EVERY single part of national, institutional and personal life. Simply BRILLIANT!!

wld that make things easier for the anti-christ?

^^

We just bloody have too many deadwoods in every agencies in this country, from police to pensions, local government, nitel, nipost, nepa, nnpc, customs and every place you can think off.

we need a database system, so each person should be uniquely identifiable with all past criminal records.
i hope this serves the purpose