The Federal Government has introduced a suite of digital
Tokens to replace the aging NIN slip and polycarbonate card.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa
Pantami said this at stakeholders workshop on the National Identification
Number (NIN) Tokenization Solution organised by National Identity Management
Commission (NIMC) in Abuja.
He said government adopted the solution to ensure privacy of
personal identifiable information of individuals during verification
transactions and to reduce incidences of illegal retrieval, usage, transfer,
and storage of NIN.
The Minister who was represented by the Director-General of NIMC, Aliyu Abubakar said the full implementation begins on Jan. 1. He said the tokenisation solution was customised to protect personal identifiable information and to protect the sanctity as well as sensitivity of the NIN issued by NIMC to registered individuals.
“One of the benefits of the virtual NIN is to ensure no
third party may carry out any verification, hiding behind a proxy (and without
the knowledge of the NIMC, being the Custodian of Identity). ”
And also generated Token or Virtual NIN is unintelligent,
completely random with no correlation to the NIN and cannot be reverse
engineered, even by a Quantum Computer.
“The NIN holder is the only exclusive issuer of NIN and
cannot be delegated, “Pantami said.
He said anonymization was also catered for with the
attachment of the UserID of the verifier to every verification request, adding
that no NIN, no verification. Pantami said NIN tokens are MDA or merchant specific
and expire after a set period of time, saying that a token generated for
company A cannot be utilized by company B.
Abubakar said that the aim of the programme was to rub minds with stakeholders to ensure
understanding of the product and buy-in by all.
“We must continue to
reinforce the need for every Nigerian to have a digital identity, irrespective
of social class or economic status, improve access to all and ensure continuous
protection of privacy and data of our citizens and other enrollees.”
We must sustain the momentum by creating continuous
awareness programs and sensitizing of the public. Also speaking, the Technical
Consultant of NIMC, Mr Tunji Durodola said the Digital Token was designed to
replace the 11-digit NIN for every usage for everyday usage.
He said NIN had been shared and stored by various entities
mostly without the knowledge consent or consent of the ID holder or the
custodian of identity in Nigeria, NIMC.
Durodola said the improved NIN slip had a smaller firm
factor and is available to all who have been issued an active NIN, saying they
may be purchased without having to visit NIMC office.
“Some of the pre-requisite of tokenization, one needs a NIN
issued by NIMC, mobile number registered in Nigeria and linked to your NIN,” he
said. The NIMC Director legal, regulatory and compliance compliance services,
Hajiya Hadiza Dagabana said there was need for sensitization of the public.
She said that the tokenization would be properly
disseminated in various local dialects for better understanding. The News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Tokenization consist of 16 Alpha-numberic
characters. starting and ending with two letters of the Alphabets.
It is issued by an ID Holder, either via the NIMC MWS Mobile
ID apps or via USSD on a feature phone and only by the NIMC, while a mobile
number linked to a In is required to participate. A minor Number linked to a
NIN is required to participate. (NAN)
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