E-Business
Stakeholders Say NIN is Asset for National Transformation
The importance of ‘proof of identity’ known as National Identification Number (NIN) resonated Monday at a Business Forum organised by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in Lagos with stakeholders describing the project as valuable asset for national transformation.
President Goodluck Jonathan had in October during the launching of the scheme identified that the enrolment exercise and issuance of a NIN is documentation critical to the country’s development.
Similarly, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, secretary general of the Federation (SGF), told stakeholders at the Forum that Nigeria must maintain an overall equivalence with the rest of the advancing world in ensuring that it create a credible identity management system, especially, that will stand the test of time.
Senator Anyim who was by Mr. Linus Awete, permanent secretary, General Services in the office of the SGF, rued the previous efforts at creating a reliable system in the country which was inclusive and bugged by legislation induced factors.
“In some cases, the process is repeated each time the service is to be delivered. Identities were neither confirmed nor unique and an individual could have different identities in each location.
“The creation of a modern national identity management system and infrastructure as recently launched by President Goodluck Jonathan signalled the dawn of a new era in our quest to get identity management right in Nigeria,” he said.
The SGF noted that NIMS which includes a secured, reliable and accessible National Identity Database (NIDB), secured identity document and identity authentication and verification infrastructure is built to meet current and long term needs of law enforcement agencies, business and commercial transactions in both the public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy.
Earlier, Dr. Chris Onyemenam, director-general (NIMC), hinted that the Commission may begin to distribute the identity cards by the first quarter of 2014; however, he noted that NIMC is currently concerned with capturing, verifying and security of database that will serve numerous purposes for the country.
He reiterated the Commission’s clear departure from the past schemes which, despite invested resources, produced limited success, adding that current disparate, mostly legislation induced, databases for government services, lead to challenges with authentication and verification hence the need for harmonization of the data captured by different Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for coherency.
Onyemenam, said that the Commission is not resting on its oars to give Nigeria a multipurpose card and reliable database, although it inherited unsustainable funding and institutional arrangement from the former department for national and civic registration (DNCR); obsolete machinery & dilapidated infrastructure with over 80% redundant or ghost workers, also the financial liabilities to SAGEM & disengaged staff, cynicism from staff & the public and preponderance of multiple identities & identity tokens.
He also listed absence of a sustainable universal identification infrastructure in Nigeria; absence of a legal, regulatory and institutional framework for identity management in Nigeria; card issuance mistaken for identity management and absence of reliable identity verification & authentication system as part of the pills NIMC has vehemently avoided.
“Government resolution towards solving the abnormalities showed in the current effort to unique and unambiguous identification of Nigerians, which led to the creation of an agency in the Presidency to establish and manage NIMS, and foster the orderly development of an identity sector in Nigeria, thus NIMC was established in 2007.
“Since then, we have been engaged in changing Nigerians mindset on the importance of this system, especially in the elimination of wastages and duplication of efforts. Our strategy involved the establishment of a National Identity Management System; creation of a model for sustainability, efficiency & local content through public-private partnership, among other measures,” he noted.
The DG said that the key NIM milestones are evident in five areas, particularly with the Standardised Data Capture/ Enrolment System deployment for data capture in compliance with ISO, ICAO, IEEE etc.
Also, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, national president, Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC), identified the process a landmark achievement that will launch the nation deeper in socio-political and economic development as population statistics and accruable data are panaceas for planning.
“A significant challenge evident in incoherent identity system is such that even during electioneering aliens troop into the country, and squeeze themselves into the system, because there is no sure way to identify the electorate. So, NIMC is on the right path and we must accord them every assistant to succeed,” he urged the people.
The business forum, which was well attended by stakeholders in the financial, technology and business community, was tagged: “Resolving Nigeria’s Identity Management Crisis.
Transcorp Hotels Plc has delivered a stellar performance in the first half of 2025, recording a 60% year-on-year surge in revenue to ₦47.57 billion, up from ₦29.72 billion in H1 2024. Gross profit climbed 71% to ₦36.21 billion, maintaining a strong 76% margin despite inflation and operational headwinds.
The hospitality giant, a subsidiary of Transnational Corporation Plc, also announced an interim dividend payout of ₦1.024 billion — offering ₦0.10 per 50 kobo ordinary share to shareholders.
In a bold move, the company unveiled Nigeria’s largest corporate venue — the 5,000-seat Transcorp Centre — staking its claim as the new leader in event hospitality. Chairman Emmanuel Nnorom described the results as proof of Transcorp Hotels’ transformative strategies and unwavering investor commitment. MD/CEO Uzo Oshogwe attributed the success to relentless execution and a resilient business model.
Transcorp Hotels, renowned for iconic assets like Transcorp Hilton Abuja and its digital platform Aura, says it isn’t just leading Nigeria’s hospitality sector — it’s redefining excellence across Africa.
Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.
China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.
The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.
“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.
The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.
It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.
Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.
Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.
Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.
A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.
“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.
Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.
Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.
It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.
Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.
National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.
According to the commission, the website has been circulating online to offer services for Nigerians seeking National Identification Number (NIN) services.
NIMC, in a post on its official X account on Wednesday, said, “NINcard.com is not in anyway affiliated to NIMC. Stay vigilant!”
The warning was accompanied by screenshots of fake payment receipts and OTP request pages from the website, both of which were boldly stamped “FAKE” by NIMC to alert the public.
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