Lack of hamonised database of Nigerians may derail target deliveries of ERGP—FG
The federal government may have agreed finally that hamonising all biometric database of Nigerians remains a key factor in the success of its key development template, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
Indications to this were made public by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari at the opening ceremony of the 4th International Annual Meeting of the ID4Africa 2018 Movement in Abuja.
He said, “The Federal Government of Nigeria has long recognised the need to have a single national identity system for all citizens in order to carry out its mandate in social and economic development, law enforcement, intelligence and political development”.
“In 2017, the Federal Government of Nigeria issued the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan as its overall strategy to drive the country’s economic development. As part of the ERGP, the government plans to deliver key services, including safety nets, agriculture development, food security, energy, transport and enterprise development, while strengthening the macro fiscal environment, investing in people and developing a local digital economy,” Buhari noted.
Buhari said, “Through the process of harmonisation of identity schemes in Nigeria, the NIMC grew the database from seven million to 14 million by 2016, and from 14 million to 28 million in 2017. Our target is to grow the database to 50 million by December 2018 and subsequently 70 million by December 2019.
According to him, “The importance of the confidentiality of data inherent in the identity management system cannot be overemphasised. We must therefore ensure absolute integrity and security of this information. As a nation of over 180 million people, it is important that we develop an integrated and connected system to ascertain that an individual is truly who he claims to be.”
However, several interest groups in Nigeria are querying how and when the federal government got the current data of poor and vulnerable Nigerians who are paid N5,000 monthly when there is no hamonised database of all Nigerians.
However, the government claimed that the harmonisation of identity schemes in the country by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) had led to a significant increase in the database of citizens across the country, adding that the government had a target of growing the figure to 70 million by December 2019.
