For many Nigerians that had been asking questions after struggling to register for their national identity Card, the reason why there had been no clear explanation by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) on when they will get their real ID card has emerged.
Recall that what the Commission had been issuing and emphasizing is National Identity Number (NIN) without any genuine explanation why holders of NIN cannot get their ID cards after all.
The reason is that Mastercard, leading e-Payment solutions provider had allegedly breached a high level understanding it had with an indigenous Information Technology firm, Chams Consortium Limited valued at over $100m in the processing of the card few years ago.
The breach hanged all arrangements made by NIMC and the ID card minting company to start mass production.
The misunderstanding forced NIMC to deemphasise ID card and emphasize NIN to the extent it has become a core condition for access to some federal services including new International Passport and others.
Chams in its anger-laden petition against Mastercard to Vice president Yemi Osinbajo, seen by Business Hilights Abuja Bureau chief, decried that the breaches caused it losses to the tune of $100m.
The petition signed by Chairman, Board of Directors, Chams Consortium Ltd., Sir Demola Aladekomo, dated April 24, 2019, claimed that Mastercard’s unwholesome business practices breached the signed Memorandum of Understanding which would have powered the seamless delivery of national ID cards to Nigerians with ease.
Part of the prayers by Chams is the intervention of the Vice President to persuade Mastercard to accept wrongdoing, apologise for the breach of contract and pay compensation to Chams Consortium Limited and Chams Plc for their accumulated losses.
The petition read in parts: “We bring to your attention the unwholesome business practice of Mastercard which has brought great loss to Chams Consortium Ltd, Chams Plc, Nextzon Ltd and the Nigerian economy. MasterCard joins the class of international companies that through underhand practices, have frustrated the National Identity project.
“In 2006, Chams Plc was invited by the Federal Government to bid for the National ID project. Chams Plc competed and emerged the preferred bidder for the Nigeria National Identity Card concession. Before and upon the execution of a concession agreement with the National Identity Management Commission, Chams Plc pursued the implementation of the NIC concession by incorporating Chams Consortium Ltd, a Special Purpose Vehicle with the sole purpose of implementing the NIC concession. Chams Plc holds a majority shareholding in CCL. Chams Plc also invited Mastercard to work with the Chams Group as one of its technical partners on the NIC concession. To our surprise and disappointment, Mastercard went on to collude with our client, NIMC, to frustrate the concession won by Chams.”
“On receiving the Letter of Award on May 25, 2007, Chams Consortium Limited invested to the tune of over $100m into the facilities/ infrastructure needed to implement the National ID card project and deliver cards to 100 million Nigerians by the Year 2009, according to the mandate given by the then former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
Aladekomo further listed the facilities to include “6,000 enrollment stations in six Chams Cities and all the Local Government Areas of the country, where 800 jobs were created; a card personalisation centre in its Abuja office, capable of delivering 1.75 million cards a day; and four data centres with identity and payment switching facility, designed to manage identities of 100 million Nigerians and their financial transactions”.
Chams group also added that “The IBM and HP data centres in four locations with 300 workers have been frustrated by the malpractices of Mastercard.
Continuing, Aladekomo disclosed that “The Central Bank of Nigeria granted the Chams Group various licences for prepaid card issuance, switching, mobile banking, independent ATM deployment, and POS deployment, purposely for the National ID project but were all frustrated and wasted by Mastercard.
On the origin of the breaches, he averred that “MasterCard Asia/Pacific Pte Ltd (MasterCard) entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Chams Plc by which the parties noted that they were considering working together to facilitate the issuance of identity cards to Nigerian citizens. On November 18, 2012, CCL also entered into a Customer Business Agreement with Mastercard, setting out the obligations of both parties. The CBA contained several clauses including non-disclosure and non-compete clauses.
“In the context of the Mastercard/Chams Agreements, Mastercard was provided with a copy of the exclusive and confidential Concession Agreement granted to CCL. Over a period of many months, Mastercard worked closely with Chams on the architecture of the National ID project designed by Chams. Chams exposed the entire architecture to Mastercard while working jointly to integrate Mastercard’s payment functionalities into the architecture of the National ID project. In the course of these developments, Mastercard received confidential information from Chams as contemplated under the CBA.”
According to Aladekomo, his company also formally introduced Mastercard to the NIMC as its technical partner, noting that Mastercard and NIMC had no business relationship prior to the formal introduction.
He revealed further that “CCL granted Mastercard access to NIMC as a signed-on partner under the concession agreement. Thereafter, Mastercard started having secret meetings with NIMC without informing, inviting, involving or updating Chams who brought them into the scene as partners.”
“As a product of these meetings, MasterCard eventually entered into an agreement with NIMC to the exclusion of Chams Consortium, Chams Plc and Nextzon. This agreement was a direct breach of MasterCard’s CBA obligation not to compete with CCL or use any information disclosed under the CBA for purposes other than the CBA’s implementation.”
“Since Chams Plc had no financial muscle to take legal action against Mastercard and seek redress against the clear breach of confidence and infidelity exhibited by Mastercard against Chams Plc, the company was persuaded to explore amicable settlement with the global payment solution provider.
In his further submission, Aladekomo hinted that “It is on record that former Director General of NIMC, Chris Onyemenam, had publicly acknowledged that Mastercard didn’t disclose to the government-owned identity management agency that it had an agreement with Chams before NIMC signed its agreement with Mastercard. Onyemenam was said to have encouraged the two parties to resolve the matter.
In anger Aladekomo noted that “In a show of remorse following Onyemenam’s accusation of Mastercard, an onerous draft Technical Support Agreement was sent by Daniel Monehin of Mastercard to Chams Plc for execution in December 2013, offering a paltry sum of $500,000.00 against the more than $100m CCL had invested on the National ID project.”
“We are aggrieved by the betrayal of our trust and confidence by Mastercard. Mastercard willfully side-tracked Chams using the knowledge and opportunity provided by Chams. We consider this act of bad faith as not just a breach of a contractual obligation owed to Chams under the terms of the Chams/MasterCard agreements, but also a betrayal of our trust and a great disdain of our nation, Nigeria.”
In conclusion, Chams boss called on Osinbajo to intervene as all human and digital efforts so far made by his consortium to get MasterCard to a resolution table failed.
A top official in the Office of the Vice president confirmed the official reception of the petition and readiness of the Vice President to resolve the matter as soon as possible.
Business Hilights recalls that late last week, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on ICT, Lanre Osibona, revealed that even though over 37 million Nigerians have been registered under the NIN, no Nigerian has received any national ID card bearing his or her NIN.
