Nigeria’s digital ID scheme may benefit those ‘with access’— but what about everyone else? · Global Voices
Taking fingerprints for Aadhaar, photo by <PERSON>, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.
Editor's note: This piece was written by <PERSON>, the digital rights program manager at Paradigm Initiative Nigeria. It is part of our series on digital ID systems, produced in partnership with The Engine Room. Visit the Digital ID microsite to read a full research report on this global trend, and case studies on five countries that have deployed digital ID systems, including Nigeria.
Can Nigeria’s digital identification (ID) scheme truly serve the public? Or is it yet another venture that will only benefit “those with access”?
This question is likely at top of mind for youths across Nigeria, who learned earlier this month — to the relief of many — that they would not be required to present digital ID numbers in order to register for upcoming university matriculation exams.
On January 11, 2020, Nigeria’s Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board announced that it would walk back the relatively new requirement, despite having instituted it in October 2019.
While it may seem like an innocuous policy change to an outsider, this reversal marked an embarrassing acknowledgment of the flaws in Nigeria’s nationwide digital identification system, which attempts to streamline the country’s complex patchwork of identity information systems pertaining to various financial and public service entities.
My organization, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, has been following the development of the system and advocating for lawmakers to establish comprehensive data protection and privacy laws in Nigeria before continuing to collect citizens’ data as part of the digital ID system.
How is the system meant to operate?
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) intends to make National Identification Numbers (NIN) a mandatory requirement for passport applications, voter registration, the opening of bank accounts and tax payments, alongside transactions relating to everything from consumer credit and health insurance and social security matters, to land ownership and pensions. That is a lot of data.
Naturally, challenges with the system hit on public policy: The initiative collects several new forms of personal data — including all ten of one's fingerprints — that are not protected or even addressed by Nigerian law. The system also faces more practical issues related to registration processes. Although the system was first conceived in 2014, only 19 percent of Nigerians have registered for National NIN. In order to serve the entire population, the Director-General of the Commission has said it would need to establish an additional 9,000 registration centers, on top of the 1,000 centers currently in operation.
Thus far, in many circumstances, the system has proven to further complicate these processes, and in some cases, to alienate citizens from participation.
Challenges for students, travelers and Nigerians with disabilities
Students who did attempt to register for NIN ahead of exams reported that the process was marred by extortion, bribery and other corrupt practices. One student group published a statement asserting that the exercise subjected students to undue stress.
<PERSON>, the mother of a student seeking to matriculate, alleged that she went to three separate registration centers in Lagos. 779
In each case, officials demanded bribes ranging from 5,000 nairas to 7,000 NGN (about $12-$20 United States dollars) from people seeking to register. As per its establishing act, the NIN registration process is meant to be free of charge.
A graduation ceremony in a private university in Nigeria. Photo by <PERSON>/ANN, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Research by The Engine Room has highlighted how many of the NIN registration locations were not accessible for people with physical impairments. Several people with physical disabilities described their attempts to register as humiliating.
As we were conducting our own research on the NIN system, Nigeria’s Immigration Service set a requirement that all passport applicants present a NIN. When a colleague needed to renew her international passport in August 2019, she flew into Abuja from Lagos and went straight to immigration headquarters, only to be turned away for lack of a NIN. She dashed to the office of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) so she could obtain her NIN, but on arrival, she was told they had run out of forms and she would have to come back another day.
In this case, I personally intervened on her behalf, having just met a top officer of the identity commission as part of my work. The officer obliged my request and my colleague was able to get the NIN the same day.
Who really benefits?
Many would argue that I should at least be glad that I have access to people who have some power. But this is exactly the problem. If essential services in Nigeria are only truly available to people who “have access,” what should the rest of the population do? 779