National ID Card System to Combat Terrorism, Fraud – MasterCard

MasterCard, the leading global payments solutions brand said its participation in the new Nigerian national identity card scheme is to help built national trust, patriotism and national cohesion among Nigerians and the international community.

Ms. Omoke Ojomuyide, vice president of Business Development for West Africa told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek last night at an Industry Roundtable session in Lagos that MasterCard was putting its own brand identity to ensure that the Nigerian project not only takes off, but to ensure that the global community develop trust on the Nigerian ID Card, just as it does the MasterCard brand.

“MasterCard is a global payment solutions company, providing such acceptable payment card brands like the flagship MasterCard, Maestro and Cirrus. We serve consumers, financial institutions and businesses in over 210 countries and territories,” said Ojomuyide.

Most importantly, Ojomuyide noted that terrorism which is a global scourge, but is gradually finding foothold in Nigeria could be curbed as financial transactions could easily be traced using the biometric data embedded in the new card.

She noted that contrary to generally expressed opinions in public parlances, the MasterCard involvement in the Nigerian ID card project is in the provision of chip technology to drive the scheme.

“There are about 13 apps incorporated in the new card, and we are only producing the chip technology. We respect local content application in the territories we operate in and the Nigerian territory is no exceptional,” she noted.

The essence of the new chip technology based card, she stated is to prevent multiple registration as is the current practice and prevent fraud to the barest minimum.

“MasterCard is very excited about this project and we would do everything to ensure its success. Already, I can confidently tell you that the Nigeria identity scheme is the largest financial inclusion project anywhere in Africa and we would be glad to ensure its success,” said Ojomuyide.

The new card which is expected to roll out 13 million registered subscribers before end of the Q3, 2013 will register all Nigerians 16 years and older.

The project incorporates a central data base (centre) to be managed by an agency of the Federal government, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC - Nimcee).

The Commission was established by Act of Parliament No. 23 of 2007 primarily to foster the orderly development of an identity sector in Nigeria through the development of a modern and universally acceptable identity management infrastructure in Nigeria.

Concurring, Chris Onyemenam director general and CEO of NIMC said: “In the next few months, it is expected that every citizens and legal resident of Nigeria will have the opportunity of being enrolled under the system”.

Most critically, Onyemenam said the new card scheme would provide a universal identification infrastructure for the entire country. “This will help bring real and recognizable benefits to the government, each of us – individually and collectively, and also for legal residents in Nigeria.”