The two firms approved by the Federal Government to carry out the new National Identity Management system for Nigeria have given their commitment to ensuring a more robust, secure and efficient identity card system using the most modern technologies for the country.

This followed the agreement signing last Friday between the Board of the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, with the two consortia for the implementation of the data capture and other related services as part of the front end operations of the National Identity Management system for the country.

Speaking on behalf of the consortia, the Managing Director of Chams Plc, Mr. Demola Aladekomo, noted that for a country the size of Nigeria not to have a robust and viable National Identity Management system was scandalous.

According to him, "for a country with over 150 million people, and immense resources like Nigeria not to have a sound, secure and sustainable identity system that will stand the test of time, is a scandal. Therefore, we are committed towards creating this new beginning that would lead the way in the image and identity management for the people of this country."

"We are grateful to government for this opportunity; it going to be a major challenge for us and our partners, and we would require a lot of money to execute this successfully. However, we believe that this ceremony will introduce a breath of new and fresh air in the identity management system for Nigerians," he added.

Speaking further, the Managing Director of Interswitch Nigeria Limited and head of the One SecureCard Consortium, Mr. Mitchell Elegbe, noted that the task of creating the National Identity management system was a huge task.

"This country is waiting for us to deliver and effective, efficient, secure and transparent Identity management system and we do not have a choice than to do this," he noted.

Addressing the representatives of the two consortia namely, Chams Consortium made up of Chams Plc and Nextzon Communications, and One SecureCard Consortium made up of Interswitch Nigeria Limited, SecureID and Iris Technologies, the Chairman of the NIMC Board, Prince Uche Secondus remarked that it had taken three years for the agreement to be reached, adding that nothing good comes easy.

He noted that the signing ceremony marks the "beginning of the process to deliver a National Identity Database of 100 million enrollments over the next thirty months from the date registration commences at the proposed model registration centres to be established across Nigeria by our partners."

Secondus observed that in putting the agreement in place, government has learnt from mistakes of the past, and has put everything in place to ensure the sustainability of the project.

"Above all, we have ensured that there will be no job losses for those who have integrity and the right mindset for the operation of a National Identity Management system in Nigeria," he added.

He noted that, "This giant step is necessary commitment that signifies Federal government's resolve to partner with the private sector to deliver important social infrastructure that would enable government to deliver on its important responsibilities - securing lives and property, access to consumer credit and a host of other services that would touch the lives of the poor amongst us and improve our image as a nation."

According to Prince Secondus, the task ahead would be more challenging, that of sourcing for funds to finance the roll-out plans, and instituting necessary security controls and protocols as well as the need for technology transfer.

"I hope the private sector partners have though through this to avoid any further delays. This is because the interest of the Nigerian citizenry is paramount and the Board will do anything within its powers to safeguard that," he stated.

He nonetheless assured the consortia of the support and cooperation of the Board towards the successful completion of the project.