The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has announced plans to launch an enhanced multi-purpose biometric identity card soon.
NIMC’s Director General and CEO, Dr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, revealed this during a media briefing in Abuja over the weekend. She stated that the initiative is being developed in partnership with the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS).
The briefing was attended by key industry leaders, including Mr. Premier Oiwoh, Managing Director/CEO of NIBSS; Ebehije Momoh, Managing Director/CEO of AfriGO; and Femi Akande, Managing Director of Data Mining Company.
Coker-Odusote emphasized that the new identity card is designed to support various federal government and private sector initiatives, tackling social and economic challenges across the country by integrating payment functionalities with identity verification as its core feature.
She said: “The key features of this card, are the biometric, based on the fingerprint, which is the only one that is currently unique; the card has a long validity period because it’s also fully KYC enabled; it has an offline and online capability, which means in locations where there are limited access to internet, this card will still work and be used for those services that it’s designed to achieve.
“And you can meet out cash, digital tokens, wallet, and email and it also has some banking details inside the chip that enables the holder to perform every other thing that can be done with ENV-enabled card.
“On the back, the card provides additional functionalities which enable Nigerians and those who are going to have access to it to be able to prove their identity at any point in time they are called to do that.”
The NIMC CEO further explained that the new multi-tasking card also facilitates the inclusion of citizens in the social and economic activities in the country.
She noted that the second programme of the card called the Government of People card, G2P, addresses the current need for government and its agencies, and even private sectors, to be able to identify people who are providing such services in a very secure and verifiable manner.
This is expected to take care of challenges in terms of identifying the people who participate in government intervention programmes.
On the cost of issuance, she assured that the card would be made available to Nigerians at affordable cost, adding that the newly designed biometric card is designed to uplift 133 million Nigerians out of poverty and provide seamless services.
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