The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, emphasised this directive 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 under the Harmonisation and Integration Implementation Committee of the National Identity Management Scheme (NIMS).
Anyim who was represented by the Special Assistant to the President in the Office of the SGF (OSGF), Mr. Ferdinand Agu, said organising a flawless system of identity data capture and its management in a distinctive approach had become a national challenge, and must therefore, “be addressed properly.”
According to him, “Harmonised identity management system will play a critical role for the socio-economic development and improve security of the country.”
The SGF further emphasised that “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.”
Earlier, the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of NIMC, Mr. Chris Onyemenam, said with the presidential directive, which was followed up by the SGF circular, "all necessary arrangement were made to achieve the December 31 deadline by the harmonisation and integration implementation committee, seeking to align data capture, identity verification and authentication activities."
Onyemenam said the commitment of the MDAs and their timely support in meeting the presidential deadline were among the critical success factors.
Besides, he added that the harmonisation and Integration Implementation committee had developed biometric and demographic standards to guide all agencies collating data.
“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,” he noted.
