Stakeholders Harps On Inclusive Enrollment System 

The Nigeria Digital Identification Development Project (NID4D) is seeking for the engagement of stakeholders for the establishment of an inclusive National Identification Number (NIN), enrollment system and effective mechanism.

This position was disclosed yesterday at the stakeholder workshop engagement for establishing an inclusive enrollment system and effective mechanism for the NID4D project held yesterday in Abuja.

The coordinator of the Nigeria Digital ID4D Project, Mr Musa Odole Solomon, explained that the project development objective is to increase the number of persons with a National Identity Number (NIN), issued by a robust and inclusive foundational identity system, that facilitates their access to services.

According to him, the project is designed, following an ecosystem model, and not limited to any single organisation. It therefore involves different agencies of the government, the private sector and of course you, the civil society.

Solomon said, “The project has made adequate provisions for financing institutional capacity development, aimed at building trust and credibility within the country’s ID ecosystem.

“Since it became effective in December 2021, Nigeria ID4D had sought to address the pervasive fragmentation of the Nigerian identification ecosystem, with no fewer than 13 public institutions providing some form of identification services; inadequate infrastructure of the National Identity Management Commission that poses a risk to the continuous enrolment of people, notably women, youth and persons living with disability.

“The project has also initiated steps towards strengthening the legal framework on identification and data in Nigeria. Addressing the legal and legislative framework is key at this time. Enactment of a data protection law and amendment of some other existing laws, such as the NIMC Act are important to our operations.

“As the Project Development Objective has mandated the project to create a robust foundational ID system for Nigeria that would involve NIMC and the Civil Registration system under the National Population Commission (NPC), the project had begun engagement with the NPC for areas of support, including digitizing the registration of births and deaths, capacity building and a review of their legal and institutional frameworks.

“The project has elaborate plans for the engagement of civil society in Nigeria. We therefore invite you to partner with us towards achieving our objectives.”

On her part, the the World Bank senior social development & specialist social sustainability and Inclusive global practice Nigeria country office, Victoria Esquival Korsiak said that the NID4D Project workshop on stakeholders engagement is really important because we need to hear from civil society organizations, MDAs, donor agencies and international communities on inclusive enrollment system.

She said that number one issue in accessing the NIN is the vulnerable group and marginalized group and we all know that NIN is for every citizens but we understand that there are people that are very high to reach some for geographic reasons but also for trust issues and lack of awareness and knowledge about NIN. So we need civil societies and MDAs and the international communities partnership to share information and participate in the process under this project so that we can reach everybody else.

She added that the Digital ID4D is a Nigerian project, jointly funded by the World Bank, European Investment Bank, and the French Development Agency.