The Federal Government has opted for a digital national identification card in place of the present plastic card.
The Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola, disclosed on Thursday this while briefing State House correspondents shortly after submitting the report of the committee on Citizen Data Management and Harmonization to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Dateline Nigeria learnt that FG is spending its hard earned foreign exchange on the production of the plastic ID and hence the need to cut cost.
Aregbesola said the digital identification will be domiciled with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
He said, “The card is just for convenience, the real thing is the number you have. With that number you are on the databank, everything about you is there. We are just upgrading it such that your DNA too will be there very soon. Even if you are in a car, I will know if you are the one in the car with your DNA, it’s already captured. You are already captured, you cannot run away anymore.”
The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Patami, said the priority of the federal government was on the digital identity
“What the chairman is saying now is that we are no more talking about cards, the world has gone digital, so that card is no more. Our priority now is digital ID, it will be attached to your database wherever you are.
“So if you can memorize it by heart, wherever you go that central database domiciled with NIMC will be able to provide the number and every one of your data will be provided,” Pantami said.
The Director-General of the NIMC, Aliu Azeez said, “With your national ID you are already identified, in the US is called social security number, the same with the UK.
“So we have found that this card is strenuous, it is forex that is going out of the country and we are in the 21st century and that is why we are focusing on national identification number and other identifications by other agencies have been linked to NIMC,” he added.
Meanwhile, the committee recommended the harmonization of all existing identity data held by Agencies with National Identification Number (NIN) and should be completed by 30th June, 2021 except INEC whose deadline was extended to 31st December, 2021.
It also recommended the setting up of a Criminal Information Management System to include the establishment of a Data Fusion Centre fashioned after the INTERPOL model for pooling of crime data and a National Criminal DNA Laboratory with Nigeria Police Force (NPF) as the co-ordinating agency.
