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Blessing Taiwo
As part of its Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) project, the World bank has funded Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to further boost its services.
This is coming when the commission is faced with allegations of data privacy breach as websites like idfinder.com.ng; Verify.Ng/sign in, championtech.com.ng, trustyonline.com, and anyverify.com.ng have been revealed as harvesters of citizenry’s information of National Identity Number, Bank Verification Number, Permanent Voter’s Card amongst others.
In a statement by the World Bank, the funding project will improve the identity system’s legal and technical safeguards to protect personal data and privacy.
In its implementation report, the world bank disclosed that the funds were disbursed in several tranches between December 2021 and April 2024, with disbursement still ongoing.
The Bretton Woods Institute approved $430m for the project in February 2020, with the $45.5 million allocated, accounting for about 10.5 per cent of the total project cost.
The project is co-financed by the World Bank’s International Development Association ($115m), the French Agency for Development ($100m), and the European Investment Bank ($215m).
“This will enable people in Nigeria, especially marginalised groups, to access welfare-enhancing services. The project will also enhance the ID system’s legal and technical safeguards to protect personal data and privacy,” the World Bank said.
The initiative also aims to increase the number of Nigerians enrolled in the National Identification Number system.
Despite the project’s June 1, 2024, deadline to enrol 148 million Nigerians for NIN, the country remains behind schedule.
According to the NIMC statistics, as of May, the number of NINs had risen to 107.34 million from the 104 million recorded in December 2023.
The World Bank has described the project’s progress as ‘moderately satisfactory,’ with NIMC reporting that 107.3 million NINs had been issued by April this year.
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