Engr. Aliyu Aziz: Bolstering Nigeria’s Digital Economy via the reinvention of NIMC

In this interview with  Deputy Business Editor of Nigerian NewsDirect, Mr Mathew Ibiyemi,  the Director General/CEO of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr Aliyu A. Aziz highlights the transformational approach he has undertaken in reinventing NIMC into a 21st century organisation bolstering Nigeria’s Digital Economy. Excerpts:

NIMC has grown from just being an agency known only for issuing Digital ID to a pivotal player in Nigeria’s digital economy. What necessitated this?

Let me start by highlighting that NIMC inherited the former Department for National Civil Registration which was known to issue identity cards. So when NIMC was established in 2007, it was therefore automatically expected to thread the same path. Of course, NIMC still adopted the use of ID cards for National Identity but soon enough we encountered hitches when the recession hit.

Also, the changes that accompany the 21st century especially in developing countries influenced the reinvention of NIMC. The society is generally going digital and digitization has impacted almost every aspect of the society. We noticed that in the US, UK they were not issuing ID cards anymore and even more recently India with a population of more than a billion people did not issue ID cards. We therefore decided to study this emerging trend, reflect and agreed that NIMC should not just focus on ID Cards. This pushed us to narrow our focus on the issuance of the National Identification Number (NIN). This singular change in focus has helped us since I assumed office as DG in November 2015 when we barely had seven million records to increase the number of records to 14 million by issuing the Digital numbers in 2016. If we had still restricted ourselves to just cards, we wouldn’t have attained this milestone.

How would you describe the role of NIMC in the realization of Nigeria’s digital economy?

I must first commend my brother and boss, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy for his astute and transformational leadership. The Minister has said that 4 things are essential in a digital economy. According to him, in the digital economy, you need a smartphone. Second, you need a digital wallet. Also, you need broadband for connectivity. Finally, because we are doing it for people then you need to digitally identify the people. This is in tandem with our strategic plan to issue foundational identity to people and also to focus on the basic identity to identify a person rather than collecting a lot of data so we can build the foundation of the digital economy. As you are aware, the Nigerian Digital economy strategy has pillars. When you have pillars,they must have a foundation without which the pillars can’t stand alone. Digital ID is the foundation of the digital economy itself and NIMC is playing a huge role in giving every Nigerian a digital identity.

How would you rate the adoption of digital identity in Nigeria?

In developing countries, you always have to have a carrot and a stick. As much as possible you have to give the carrot. Firstly, we focused on executing the foundational aspects rather than focusing on the functional aspects. When we were doing the ID card and the card was a general multipurpose card that can serve as a driver’s license, banking tool, amongst others, many agencies thought we wanted to take their jobs and replace them. So, when we focused on the NIN,it implied that we are doing only what our mandate is, which allowed general acceptance of the NIN amongst the agencies. Because we collect quality data and verifiable data, it increased our acceptance. In 2016, we gave some banks our data free of charge to use and before we knew it, they returned again this time around after the exhaustion of the one year period to use the data and we charged them for it. So, there is a lot of adoption from the financial sector to verify the identity of people and also to drive financial inclusion. Other sectors where the adoption rate is high includes sectors such as the pension, drivers license, immigration, telecom sector.

For example, the minister recently reminded the telcos of the importance of verifying identities before giving them a SIM. As of that time, there were telephone numbers always found at crime scenes which couldn’t be tied to any identity. The minister enforced the policy of compulsorily linking NIN-SIM and it catapulted the rate of adoption from over 39 million to more than 95 million in our database.

There is adoption, there is also usage. To encourage usage, many sister agencies, corporate organizations, institutions began to request compulsorily for NIN to verify an individual.

Also, we had front end partners such as the ID4D, EU and AFD to develop and also have private sector into the system. We were able to get those people and they put in their own money to buy the equipment and get people and pay them. We only provided the software they use and by doing this, we provided availability, provided a  lot of centers. The increase in the number of centers and systems made us to be able to cover more grounds and reach more Nigerians.

So far,we have captured about 50 per cent of the population but when it comes to usage, there are Continued from back page mainstream people and you have to categorize it by age bracket. The mainstream people are people that are doing businesses, most of which we have captured but when it comes to children, the adoption rate is low. We also have low adoption amongst elderly people. We have captured 70% of the mainstream excluding children. However, there is work to be done and there are still people that need to be reached and captured in the data base.

There have been complaints regarding the duplication of data collection by other government agencies asides NIMC. Can we get updates on the harmonization of the National Identity Management System (NIMS) with other data collecting agencies and the challenges being faced?

The act that sets up NIMC mandates us to carry out harmonization and integration of all the different silos collecting data. When Nigeria set off, there was no proper identity and we can’t blame anyone.

We have been able to initiate and also have harmonization meetings with all other data collecting agencies. Our board also comprises all agencies collecting data. We have worked hard but the data you have to harmonize has to be digital,if it is not digital you cannot harmonize.

The major agency that had data that we needed to harmonize is the CBN BVN data and so far we have harmonized 11 million. We also currently have 15 million in the pipeline just waiting because of the SIM-NIN linking because it’s the same system we use. There is a working relationship to ensure the banks, telcos are harmonized so the majority of networks will be harmonized.

In the future, once all agencies data are harmonized, if NIMC has captured your data and you have the NIN every other place you go to , you will only need to give your NIN and they can use that to verify your information. However, many of this agencies have built a system for collecting data that is tailored to their function which is contributing to the duplication of data. NIMC system is for everyone and the infrastructure is completely different between functions. So far so good there is a  lot of work to be done to harmonize the records.

What is your biggest achievement since your assumption of office as DG?

There are many, but my biggest achievement is the growth of the database to almost 100 million. The growth of the database influences the people, processes, and technology which all helps the legacy I am leaving behind.

What would you want to be remembered for after the duration of your tenure gets exhausted?

When I assumed office, my focus was on reinventing the People, Processes and Technology. I stated that I wanted to reinvent NIMC and have 10x of growth in one year but in reality it turned out to 2x. I also wanted to make it a recognized agency where most of the issues that we have in people such as welfare, salaries are worked on and also improving the technology such that you can enroll for NIN anywhere in the world and get it immediately. The processes, and streamlining of standardized software are not the same everywhere but achieving and maintaining them was. However, for the hardworking staff, I’m happy the salary has been reviewed and the new one would commence any moment. This would finalise the three focal points of my administration which I will be remembered for.