The Federal Government is marking the National Identity Day on Wednesday, September 16 (16.9), a day set aside by countries to raise awareness on the importance of identity.
Here in Nigeria, the commemoration of the Day started two years ago by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) under its Director General, Engr. Aliyu Aziz.
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Yesterday, the Federal Government officially gave recognition to it and the Day (16.9) was formally adopted as the National Identity Day.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, said this year’s edition will hold virtually with the theme: ‘Identity for Health, Sustainable Development and Growth’.
“We will start by capturing Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria and will also support the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and other stakeholders to ensure that we make the process of obtaining Digital IDs swift and secure.”
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa noted that digital identity and the digital economy are not only linked, but are also reinforcing, as digital ID is the basis for digital economy platforms.
The International Identity Day raises awareness of the need to have about 1 billion people to gain a means of formal identification, with 81% of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
