President Goodluck Jonathan had on August 28,
2014, heralded the official launch of the eID card
pilot scheme. As part of the pilot phase, the
Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC)
has started to issue identity cards with
MasterCards’s electronic functionality to 13
million Nigerians. This initiative is the largest
rollout of a biometric-based verification card with
an electronic payment solution in the country and
the broadest financial inclusion program in Africa.
The eID card forms a key component of the
Nigerian Identity Management System, deployed
by NIMC as part of its mandate to create,
maintain and operate the country’s first central
National Identity Database and provide proof of
identity to Nigerians 16 years and older.
With 13 applications, including MasterCard’s
prepaid payment technology and Cryptovision’s
biometric identification technology, the eID card
will provide millions of Nigerians – the majority of
whom have never had access to a banking
product – with the security, convenience and
reliability of electronic payments.
Contrary to speculations that the national
electronic identity (eID) card, currently being
issued by the National Identity Management
Commission (NIMC) is fraught with security
breaches, the commission has said it would
instead give the cards, and card bearers
international recognition and acceptance, since
the cards also function as payment cards.
Director-General of NIMC, Chris Onyemenam,
who made the clarification in a media briefing on
Monday in Lagos, described the speculations as
false, insisting that the card bearers will enjoy
international recognition since MasterCard is a
global brand with integrity and acceptability
across the globe.
‘The introduction of MasterCard’s logo on the
national eID card is an advancement in
technology on the part of NIMC in ensuring that
the country’s identity card is recognised locally
and globally as payment card. Any suggestion that
MasterCard or any forign body will gain access to
the database is pure fiction not backed up with
evidence,’ Onyemenam said.
Reacting to speculations that the introduction of
MasterCard’s logo constitutes national breach,
since part of the in-built technologies of the card
are controlled by MasterCard, thus exposing the
database of Nigeria to a foreign company,
Onyemenam said the card contains 13 applets,
which are security features, and that MasterCard,
a technology company, controls only one of the
security features, which is the personal identity
number (PIN) authentication in facilitating
financial transactions on the card as MasterCard
does not and will never have access to any
database. MasterCard’s prepaid technology is just
one of the card’s 13 different applications, five of
which are currently live. MasterCard’s payments
technology is stored securely and separately from
the other applets, including the card’s
identification applet. In fact, there is a firewall
between the payment applet and all the other
applets, so, not even a Point of Sale terminal or
ATM can access the secure data that is protected
on certain parts of the card.
NIMC is the custodian of the National Identity
Database and would be contravening so many
national security laws if it ever handed access to
the National Database to local or foreign
company or organisation.
The Division President, Sub-Saharan Africa of
MasterCard, Mr. Daniel Monehin also shared that
MasterCard does not know the personal details of
the cardholder. In his words,’ MasterCard is not a
credit company, and not an identity company, but
a technology company that is facilitating
authenticity in every financial transaction carried
out on the card’. He added, ‘MasterCard is
providing the payments technology on the
National eID Card that enables cardholders to
make safe and secure electronic payments and
transact electronically in Nigeria and across the
border’.
On the choice of MasterCard as the technology
payment provider for the National eID pilot
program, MasterCard presented its payment
solution and business proposal to NIMC for the
National eID Card business together with other
card schemes and companies. The three popular
schemes – approved and licensed by the Central
Bank to operate in Nigeria and with significant
business relationships with the Nigerian deposit
money banks – were invited to submit proposals
to NIMC. The most responsive and willing vendor
was MasterCard. NIMC announced its selection of
MasterCard as the payments technology provider
for the Nigerian National eID pilot program in
May 2013 at the World Economic Forum on Africa,
which was held in South Africa.
The National eID Card is a chip and pin card
certified according to the EMV (EuroPay,
MasterCard and Visa) standard for globally
interoperable, secure payments, which is
mandated by the government of Nigeria, and it is
approved and licenced by the Central Bank of
Nigeria. The key element of EMV involves
including dynamic digital data in every
transaction. This makes these types of
transactions extremely secure and reduces the
risk of fraud. When a consumer uses an
EMVenabled card to pay at an EMV terminal, it can
be instantly identified as an authentic, approved
payment instrument belonging to that consumer
through a process called dynamic authentication.
When used with a PIN (Personal Identification
Number), the chip verifies that the consumer is
indeed holding his or her own payment card.