Senate: Why Nigeria must have single identity system

The Senate says it is engaging the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and other relevant ministries and agencies to harmonise the National Identification Number (NIN), the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and other digital identity platforms into a single identification management system.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on ICT, Cyber Crimes, Salisu Shuiab, disclosed this during an interactive session with the management and staff of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun state.

Shuaib who is representing Ogun Central, said the single identity system is one of the strategies being employed by the Federal government to fight insecurity and corruption.

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He described the multiple identification systems operated by different platforms such as NIN, BVN, international passport as waste of resources and major albatross to fighting insecurity.

He said a unified digital identity system would also help the Federal government in planning for its various intervention programmes through equitable distribution of resources.

“I can assure Nigerians that the era where you have silos, one individual being a dimension in different places is not only a waste, it also contributes to insecurity and indeed even corruption.

“We are making move to harmonise our identity data base. We have engaged the relevant ministries – the Ministry of Communication Digital Economy, the Ministry of Industry and even the CEO of the National Identity Management Commission to ensure that a Nigerian who has registered with NIMC and has a national identity number is recognised across all platforms, whether for for passport purposes, driver’s license, even for the purpose of the various interventions that the federal government is doing.

“You cannot have a digital economy without a reliable digital identity and digital identity starts with harmonising our data base to ensure that one individual is recognised across all the systems”, Shuiab said.

He called for a partnership between FUNAAB and his office on the training of rural farmers in agricultural production.

In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the FUNAAB, Prof. Olusola Kehinde would be willing to partner with relevant agencies to ensure food security in the country.