A few days ago, the Federal Government announced yet again that it was setting up a committee to oversee the creation of the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development World Bank Project. This came a month after millions of Nigerians were hastened to link their National Identification Numbers to their phone numbers to ensure they were accounted for.

The aim, it said, was to “establish a secure and verifiable digital identity for every Nigerian”.

The committee is led by the Secretary to the Federation, George Akume. Akume, in a statement in Abuja, said, “The project’s vision is to establish a secure and verifiable digital identity for every Nigerian, thereby enhancing service delivery, governance, and creating opportunities for growth in the digital economy.”

According to the statement by the Director of Information, Office of the SGF, Segun Imohiosen, enrolling every Nigerian in the digital identification system is supposed to facilitate access to services, improve service delivery, and support the nation’s digital economy.

He declared that the “Nigeria Digital ID4D project holds immense promise in revolutionising identification and access to services”.

FG’s drive to improve governance

Speaking on the usefulness of the newly proposed ‘digital’ identity, the Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, said the digital identity project would drive socio-economic development and empower the citizens.

“Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Programme represents a bold and ambitious initiative aimed at leveraging digital technologies to enhance service delivery, improve governance, and unlock opportunities for our citizens,” she was quoted as saying on the website of the NIMC.

But this is not the first time there has been an inaugurated committee to lead the digital identification drive. The first was done during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The World Bank-sponsored project, according to the World Bank’s official site, aims to “increase the number of persons with a national ID number, issued by a robust and inclusive foundational ID system, that facilitates their access to services”.

The $430m project was listed with a closing date of June 30, 2024.

However, it is unclear whether this new digital identification would be different from the existing NIN as it was not stated by the committee.

Checks show it is a new digital identification different from the NIN and the bank verification number that the FG had over the years mandated Nigerians to acquire.

Against the backdrop of the uncertainty of which level of identification this falls in, experts have expressed concerns about the usefulness of yet a new form of identification as Nigerians already have the BVN and the NIN which were made compulsory by the same Federal Government.

On the website of the NIMC, the use and importance of the NIN were listed as being both digital and offline.

According to the agency, the NIN is used for essential services like passport issuance, banking services, land transactions, insurance services, pensions, health insurance, payment of taxes, voter registration, consumer credits, and all government services.

The usefulness of the NIN does not end within the Nigerian border as the agency explained also that it is used to keep an accurate date of Nigerians living outside the country.

Another reason why the NIN is important, according to an international relations expert, Damilola Waliu, is to curb insecurity in the country and also make economic plans with the details of its population.

As the NIN already serves an encompassing purpose for its citizens both online and offline, the need for a new identification remains a puzzle to many.

The problem with duplicity

The founder of Hyperspace & NeuRaL AI, an artificial intelligence and software company, Oluseyi Akindeinde, stated that creating a new identification for Nigerians might not be a good idea as it was simply a duplication of the functions of other means of identification.

Referencing the United States social security number, he explained that with just the SSN, there was no information needed about a citizen that could not be found with the SSN hence, creating multiple means of identification in Nigeria could be a not well-thought-out plan.

“It is a duplication of efforts. Before NIN, we had BVN which we thought was going to serve as a means of identification but they came with NIN.

“Now, they are planning on introducing a digital ID again. I think there’s just a duplication of efforts and, I am not sure of the purpose a digital ID would serve when we already have the NIN, which is supposed to be digital, as well as the BVN.

“I don’t know what purpose that would serve and the instances where we will use it because right now, NIN should be the standard and compared to other countries like the US, they only have the SSN, and having that alone, gives you all the details you need about that particular person but in this case, we have BVN, we have NIN.

“We may have another one at the end of the day so it is going to lead to a lot of confusion in that we’d be confused about which we would use,” Akindeinde said.

Waliu, who also stated that creating another identity would simply lead to the duplicity of functions, stated that he could not see how a digital identity would drive economic growth.

He also said that with the duplicity of identification systems, the privacy and safety of the data of Nigerian citizens could be threatened because there is just not one data to maintain.

“Sincerely, there is nothing like economic growth with creating multiple means of identification. Which economic growth is the new ID bringing that the other ones have not brought? They should simply stick to only one system and maintain it.

“To have an efficient data management system, we need to maintain only one channel. If it is NIN, let’s have only that and maintain it to the letter. If it is BVN, let us maintain only it; you know duplication leads to a bridge of data and everything will become porous,” he added.

Mismanaged data and identity theft

Recently, the Foundation for Investigative Journalism said it uncovered a private website that sold data of Nigerians to anyone requesting it online. Following the report, the site was taken off the Internet with the NIMC assuring Nigerians that the data breach was not from its (NIMC’s) end.

The agency revealed that it offers NIN verification and other services through licensed partners which did not include the private website reported and promised to look into the matter.

Commenting on this, Akindeinde said though the government agency should have the capacity to protect citizens’ data, the risk of losing personal data to the wrong hands could be devastating for the victims.

“When people have their data online carelessly, it can be used for identity theft and social engineering – manipulating, influencing, or deceiving a victim to gain control over a computer system, or to steal personal and financial information.

“It is because of situations like this that there is a proliferation of callers who tell you your name, your account number, and BVN. They use it to extract more information from you.

“It is a bit of a risk to have it out there because they can leverage this data for some of these nefarious activities,” he said.

The government has not done enough to ensure the safety of the data of Nigerians, Akindeinde added. He observed that campaigns on data privacy awareness had always been private sector-led but ought not to be so.

The tech expert further stated that with the fast-paced uptake of digitisation and the advent of artificial intelligence, data privacy should be taken more seriously.

“What we often see is that banks are the ones always sending out emails on not sharing your personal information. The government needs to do more at the grassroots level using local languages to drill down this message in that regard.

 “I don’t think there is any Nigerian at any economic level that is not carrying a smartphone. Once you have a smartphone, your data is there. So, that message needs to be heard loud and clear especially with the advent of AI and regenerative AI that we are seeing all over the place,” he added.

Commenting, a cybersecurity expert, Chukwuemeka Orjiani, said the problem with multiple means of identification was duplicity.

“Duplicity is the problem. Let’s say the door to your house has 10 keys but you misplaced seven. Now, anyone who has any of the seven lost keys will be able to access your house.

“So having so many identities would lead to having so many problems especially when there is a security breach in all the networks. Imagine if you have 10 identity networks and five of them are breached, it means that people’s data would be at risk,” Orjiani said.

According to him, the lack of centralisation is another risk that having multiple means of identification presents, adding that data is a deadly tool in the wrong hands.

He, therefore, said it was important people ask questions and not drop their details carelessly in any circumstance.

Ojiani added, “Someone has been a victim of taking a loan he didn’t know about because he lost his phone number. Information like a person’s phone number, house address, email address, and national identity, can be used to social engineer people who are around you.

“Social engineering is a big security issue because people would fall victim to thinking they are doing the right thing for you but it is for another person. I’m sure you have seen cases where someone’s WhatsApp or Facebook accounts were hijacked; all those things are made possible because the person’s phone number or national ID, email address or house address go into the wrong hands.”