100 million Nigerians don’t have recognised ID, says report

In a report titled, ‘Digital ID in Nigeria: State of the Industry,’ the firm said Nigeria like most other nations operates a foundational ID system concerned with accounting for the population overall, and functional IDs to demonstrate eligibility for certain services such as voting or driving.

According to it, foundational ID systems are identical to national IDs issued by the government to clarify someone’s legal status while functional IDs facilitate the identification and authorisation of a people’s eligibility for specific use cases.

Internally Displaced Persons collect their belongings at the Bakassi IDPs Camp in Maiduguri on November 30, 2021. (Photo by AUDU MARTE/AFP via Getty Images)It said, “At last count, approximately 500 million Africans had no form of recognisable legal identity.

“Additionally, over 100 million Nigerians, or a little less than half the population do not have any form of recognised ID, including other non-NIN ID.

“This means roughly 40 per cent of the continent and 50 per cent of the country, respectively, lack an integral enabler of benefits such as accessing a financial product, voting, or participating in online marketplaces.”

The firm added that currently, 15 per cent of Nigerians have both an e-ID card and a NIN while 30 per cent have a NIN (66m) but not e-ID card8 (the physical token linked to the NIN).

According to the report, the nation’s digital identity ecosystem is based on the foundational identity of a National Identity Number, which the government intends to make the most widely used form of identity.

It added that the nation is presently undergoing a multi-year harmonisation effort to connect data from various government agencies’ identity datasets to NIMCs National Identity Database.

It said, “There are at least 19 agencies that will be connected to the NIN upon full harmonisation, which presents a remarkable opportunity to dramatically reduce the cost of identity management on a governmental level through the integration and interoperability of databases across various agencies and departments.”

However, there are currently challenges with digital ID uptake in Nigeria with users having limited incentives for uptake as most citizens find enough coverage in their functional IDs.

The firm added, “Nigeria has mandated that SIM cards be linked to NINs in order to continue mobile phone service, and that BVNs be linked to NINs in order to maintain a bank account.

“Enforcement, however, has been lenient. The enrolment process is perceived by some to be too lengthy, and entry points are not streamlined. Current entry points into the digital ID system do not yet follow a streamlined identification lifecycle that connects the civil registry to the NIN

“Enrolment centres are concentrated in city centres, which poses a challenge to reaching the country’s 48 per cent rural and peri-urban population. More men than women are enrolled in digital ID in most areas of Nigeria. Gendered cultural norms and divisions in labour, access to funds, and access to transport are likely play a role in this discrepancy.

“Lack of interoperability across legacy functional IDs currently prevents enrolment with a user’s functional ID of choice or convenience from also populating the NIDB. Attempting to retroactively harmonise datasets—as the NIMC is presently trying to do—raises concerns about data integrity.

“Neither telecoms nor voter data is AML compliant, as the identities they issue are not unique and can be easily duplicated across multiple locales. Similarly, one can register multiple SIM cards using various combinations of ID data like address or marital status.”

100 million Nigerians don’t have recognised ID, says report (msn.com)