EBS: Experts Decry Country’s Careless Data Enrolment Process

Technology experts at eNNovators Breakfast Series (EBS) unanimously called for leveraging of identity brokers to contain the careless manners with which identity enrolment in the country is carried out by several government agencies and telcos.

To them, the manner in which data are capture in the country pose serious threat that can compromise identities of millions of Nigerians.

And smart organizations in the country are now paying less attention to certificates. They pay more attention to potential employees’ social media identity footprint. It is believed that a person’s true identity/personality is better glimpsed through his online identity.

Also, companies around the world have evolved necessary legal framework and regulations to unleash the potential of the data processing market, while Nigeria is arguably the country with largest number of silos identity enrolment schemes and yet it cannot identify its citizens.

eNNovators Breakfast Series (EBS) is a quarterly breakfast event. It is specially packaged for the Dreamers, Drivers and Doers (3Ds) of technology business in financial services industry across Africa.

EBS offers opportunities to network, learn and plan strategically. The theme of this series is “Identity Is The New Money. Quarterly, leading industry Thought Leaders meet in an intimate and relaxed environment to create new relationships and promote their organisations.

According to Sola Fanawopo – event director (EBS), “When you go into Shoprite at Lekki Shopping Mall and pay with your MasterCard, Visa or Verve Card, it's an identity transaction. The terminal in Shoprite establishes that you have access to a line of credit that means that Shoprite will be paid.

“No actual money moves between your debit card and the Shoprite till. On the other hand, when you buy an apple from a market stall and pay for it with a N100 note, the stallholder doesn't need to waste any time or money trying to establish who you are, because he doesn't need to trust you. He just needs to trust the Naira note, which he self-assays.

“As a thought experiment, then, imagine that cash vanishes and we interact through identity. In that case, identity becomes the key to transactions and a crucial individual resource that needs to be looked after by responsible organizations.

“This is the idea behind the Digital Asset Grid put forward by the Innotribe team at SWIFT, the worldwide interbank messaging service, at last year's SIBOS. Whether you think DAG is the right specific approach or not, there's something to be said for begin strategic planning around the transition to identity-based transactions.

“What does all this mean at a macro level? It means that the action in the payments world will shift further toward identity over the coming years. What is Nigerian bank approach to the global thinking? -Is the national e-ID and Bank Verification Number (BVN) configured and comprehensive enough to meet the evolving requirements? -Is there any opportunity for e-Signatures and related online trust services in Nigeria? -Are there opportunities for private and public players (such as mobile operators, insurers, banks, Lagos State government, the Immigration service, FRSC) to encash the identity information they store? -Can they become identity brokers?”

To this end, the experts said that Nigeria firms have the capacities and capabilities to exploit the business if ID management if the right regulations is put in place.

The constitution empowers several government agencies to do identity enrolments and these have led to duplications of identity databases across the MDAs.

The participants resolved that “The telcos should take a cue from banks and digitized their SIM card enrolment processes such that subscribers would not need to fill papers that could fall into the hands of unscrupulous elements that could use the identity for criminal purposes.

 “Government should encourage the establishment of identity brokerage services,  "banker for data" or "ISP for identity services“ I-Brokers is  trusted third party that helps individuals and organizations share private data the same way banks help exchange funds and ISPs help exchange e-mail and files.

 “I-Brokers, when licensed will help bridge the gap between relying (RP) party and identity service provider (IDP) by providing public infrastructure for digital identity, security, and privacy using the open standard data interchange protocol. Besides, I-Brokers will alleviate the number of integrations required between RPs and IDPs.

“Government should make life easy for consumers of ID services by promoting the concept of “Connect to One, Connect to All”

“Stakeholders in ID management industry in collaboration with government should allow evolution of standards for interoperability, security, dispute resolution, and un-traceability or un-deniability of ID.

“Government should enact data privacy law to protect consumers’ personal information and ensure that they have the confidence to take advantage of benefits of the ever-changing marketplace.

“IT firms should exploit the opportunities of absence of ID management platforms to invest in identity management services so that local competence can be developed in the industry.

Some of the speakers are Adebisi Shonubi, MD/CEO, NIBSS; Femi Williams, MD/CEO Chams Plc; James Agada, MD/CEO CWG and Chinenye Mba-Uzokwu, MD/CEO, Infographics, who moderated the discussions that followed.