Nigeria’s New ID Card now ICAO- Compliant

An  Independent Laboratory and Field Test (ILFT), conducted on the New Smart National Identity Card (NSNIC), has shown that it is in compliance with the security recommendations and standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

Mr. Abdulhamid Umar, deputy director of the National Identity Management Commission’s (NIMC), told journalists at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, (MMIA), Lagos, at the weekend that the successful test confirms that the new smart card would be used as a travel document when it is launched and issued to Nigerians, as it has all the security details for individual profiling and identification.

Umar further explained that the Card Personalisation Facilities (CPF) had passed the User Acceptance Test (UAT), which was followed closely by the successful testing and validation of the EuroMasterVisa (EMV) compliance testing.

This test, he said, showed that the new National Identity Smart Card could be used at points of sale (PoS) and ATM machines for transactions currently available on the conventional ATM Cards.

 A different source close to the Commission has also confirmed that arrangements have been made for the card launch to herald the commencement of the e–ID card issuance to Nigerians, but the process was slowed down due to lack of funds.

“There are plans to precede the card issuance with a massive awareness campaign that is only held back by lack of funds,” the source said.

“NIMC had called on banks and telecom companies to support it so that it can scale up enrolment activities, which have been hampered by the non-performance of the private sector companies CHAMS Consortium Limited and OnesecureCard Limited who were given a concession to create enrolment centres,” the source added.

In October 2013, the Presidency mandated the Commission to ensure that all eligible persons in Nigeria were enrolled into the national identity card programme and that all agencies of government should switch over to the NIMC infrastructure.

It was gathered that the Commission is seeking corporate sponsors to support its programme because the budget of the commission, which had not been fully released for the past two years, was cut by 75 per cent.