TO complement economic services in the country, Director General and Chief Executive Officer, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Dr. Chris Onyemenam, has revealed that the national identity was key to financial inclusion and development of financial services sector, just as registration for the scheme would commence after the April general elections.Onyemenam, who was the guest speaker at the April edition of Information Value Chain Breakfast Forum organised by Digital Jewels Limited, explained that registration had already begun in Lagos and Abuja, and that the identity management scheme was part of the Federal Governments desire to develop and deepen the consumer credit sector, facilitate the enforcement of existing laws and ensure financial inclusion.He listed the benefits of identity managemen to the economy, as streamlining biometric-linked projects in the public and privates sector, eliminating multiple and ghost identities, reducing identity theft and related fraud (advance fee fraud), enhancing the work of law enforcement agencies, financial inclusion and development of financial services sector, creating new economic and employment opportunities, among others.In his presentation, titled The National Identity Management Scheme: e-Commerce catalyst or encumbrance, Onyemenam spoke on the gravity of challenges in identity management in Nigeria, and how the commission plans to tackle the encumbrances and restore sanity in the nations identity sector.He itemised challenges facing the scheme to include multiple identification initiatives by institutions such as the Pension Commission, land registers, Federal Inland Revenue Service, SIM registrars, law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, the Independent National Electoral Commission, Immigrations, Federal Road Safety Corps and several others who have to embark on their own personal registration and the absence of core identity sector infrastructure.It would help in the enhancement of the consumer credit sector, governance through e-governance, revenue processes, administration of social welfare programmes and subsidies, national payment system and improve standard of life as it would enhance national security, among others, he said.According to him, over eight years ago, the contract for the implementation of the national identity card scheme was awarded to SAGEM of France. However, the contract, which was laden with alleged bribery scandals did not yield the results Nigerians expected because years after the registration, majority of Nigerians had neither a national card nor numbers with which to be identified.In May 2007, the NIMC Act established the commission and provided the legal framework for reforms in the sector. The reform mandate includes collecting basic demographic and biometric data, creating, operating and managing a National Identity Database, providing an on-line/off line cost effective verification and authentication infrastructure in Nigeria, integrating with ID schemes, providing standardised identity attributes and fostering the orderly development of an identity sector in Nigeria
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