FG reaffirms deadline for enrolling Nigerians in identity cards scheme -Karls Tsokar Abuja

THE Federal Government has restated the need for all agencies working together on the national identity management project to ensure that the target of ensuring that all eligible Nigerians are enrolled by December 31, 2014 is achieved.
  Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, emphasised the presidential order yesterday in Abuja while declaring open the Stakeholders Workshop on Implementation of the Presidential Directive on the Alignment of Data Capture, Identity Verification and Authentication Activities in MDAs (Ministries Departments and Agencies), under the Harmonisation and Integration Implementation Committee of the National Identity Management Scheme (NIMS).
  Anyim said: “When President Goodluck Jonathan gave the directive that all eligible Nigerians should be enrolled before 31st December 2014, he meant it, do all you can to ensure compliance by that date.”
  He said organising a flawless system of identity data capture and its management in a distinctive approach has become a national challenge, it must therefore “be addressed properly”. According to him, a “harmonised identity management system will play a critical role in the socio-economic development and efforts at improving security of the country.”
  The SGF who was represented by a Special Assistant to the President in the SGF office, Ferdinand Agu, told the participants: “The workshop is not for you to analyse why the policy can’t work or why more time is needed. It is not for you to justify the need for your MDAs to have its own separate process or database, but for you to quickly determine how your MDA can help achieve the objective of streamlining activities of MDAs in identity management to optimise the use of scarce government resources and establish a single secure, reliable accessible and scalable NIMS.”
   The Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Chris Onyemenam, said with the presidential directive which preceded the SGF’s circular on the December 31, 2014 deadline, “all government agencies requiring identity verification and authentication services or involved in data capture are to align their activities with a view to switching over to the NIMC infrastructure.”
   Onyemenam said the commitment of the MDAs and their timely support in meeting the presidential deadline is among the critical success factors. He said the Harmonisation and Integration Implementation Committee has developed biometric and demographic standards to guide all agencies collating data.

Culled from Guardian Newspapers.