Saturday, November 23, 2024

Set to go, Buhari restores a once-condemned Jonathan ID plan

The Buhari administration's approval of multipurpose bank cards returns a policy Nigerians once criticised over privacy and national security concerns.

The federal government has announced that banks are now permitted to provide customers with debit cards that also serve as national identity cards, complete with unique ID numbers.

But the policy, first initiated by the Jonathan government, was once criticized by Nigerians over privacy and national security concerns. The Buhari administration terminated it after coming to power eight years ago. It is now reintroducing the plan just days before leaving.

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Isa Pantami said on Wednesday the federal executive council chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari approved a plan by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to allow banks print “multipurpose debit cards that double as National identity cards.”

“It is going to be a form of multipurpose card where it will serve as your national identity card on one hand and also your bank card on the other hand, either Mastercard, Visa or any other kind of card,” the minister said, according the News Agency of Nigeria.

He said the government took the decision in response to rising demand for physical national ID cards by Nigerians. He said while the law mandates Nigerians to have a national identity number, not necessarily a printout card, “many citizens, particularly those living in rural communities, always go to NIMC offices complaining that they need the card at hand.”

The government’s release of downloadable “smart ID card” last year has not helped as many in rural communities lack education or internet to access the cards. Mr Pantami said NIMC has partnered with the Central Bank of Nigeria so that citizens who require a card can easily go to the banks.

“It is going to be a form of multipurpose card that will serve as your national identity card on one hand and also your bank card on the other. And based on the agreement, it is without any additional costs on our citizens,” he said.

“So when you apply for a card at your bank, you can indicate that ‘I want this card to be multiple purpose where it will serve as my bank card and also my national identity card’.

“Both of them are going to be printed on the same card and it is going to serve the same purposes without any additional costs,” the minister explained.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Isa Pantami displays a sign showing 100 million Nigerians have enrolled for the NIN. Credit: Pantami

– Old wine in new skin

The policy is not new. It was first launched by the Jonathan administration in August 2014 but was widely criticised by Nigerians who expressed concerns over privacy and national security issues.

At the launching, NIMC said the cards, which bore Mastercard’s logo, were designed to also allow users carry out payments and other financial transactions. The pilot phase targeted the issuance of 100 million cards, the commission said, describing the move as the “broadest financial inclusion program in Africa”.

The cards were to be issued to Nigerians who were 16 years and older and were to serve as voting cards during the 2019 elections.

“The card is not only a means of certifying your identity, but also a personal database repository and payment card, all in your pocket,” President Jonathan said during the launch, praising the partnership between NIMC and MasterCard.

Under the partnership, MasterCard provided the payment technology, while Unified Payment Services Limited processed payments. Cryptovision was the public key infrastructure and trust services provider, and the pilot issuing bank was Access Bank Plc.

– National security

The move angered some Nigerians who feared citizens’ data would be handed to a private American company. Many particularly complained against allowing the logo of a private company on Nigeria’s national identity cards, which should bear the coat of arms.

Former senator Shehu Sani, then of the Civil Rights Congress, said: “The new ID card with a MasterCard logo does not represent an identity of a Nigerian. It simply represents a stamped ownership of a Nigerian by an American company.”

“It is reminiscent of the logo pasted on the bodies of African salves transported across the Atlantic,” he added.

The governor of Kaduna state, Nasir el-Rufai, who was then a former minister, was also quoted by a Premium Times report as saying: “Clearly, there are national security implications. All these data go to the American payment platform.”

Mr El-Rufai said Malaysia was the first country to use a general multipurpose ID card but said the Asian nation did so with its own resources and technology to protect its citizens.

MasterCard denied it was turning the ID project into a branding activity, saying “the brand mark is not MasterCard’s corporate logo, nor is it an advertisement for the company. The MasterCard brand displayed on the card is what makes the electronic payment component of the eID card accepted as a means of payment.”

Mr Sani did not respond to a message to his known number requesting comments on the return of the policy the Buhari administration jettisoned eight years ago.

Cheta Nwanze, lead partner at Lagos-based SBM Intelligence, said the concerns raised at the time still hold but citizens have been less critical now of the government.

“They’ve not changed. The Nigerian state’s habits with respect to data protection are still very much t​​he same,” he told Pluboard.

“The only thing that has changed is that under Jonathan, Nigerians were more ready to be actively critical of the government than they are under Buhari.”

The Buhari administration did not continue with the policy after it came to power in 2015. The project was enmeshed in controversy due to a dispute between NIMC, MasterCard and Chams, which was to be part of the initial project.

A sample of the former national ID card.

– Protecting citizens

Mr Pantami said NIMC and the CBN signed a nondisclosure agreement to protect the privacy and confidentiality of card applicants.

“NIMC and the central bank signed a nondisclosure agreement where your privacy and your confidentiality must be respected in the course of providing the card for you,” he said.

“When you apply for the card, the bank will apply online to NIMC through their database. When they verify and confirm that your record in the database is in alignment with your record in NIMC database, it will be permitted and the card is going to be printed for you immediately.”

It is not clear how that will be done, and if that will protect citizens from the concerns raised. Mr Pantami did not also say what the government planned to do about having a private firms’ logos on Nigeria’s national ID cards.

Additional reporting by Kunle Sanni.


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