Lagos — Director General, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Dr. Chris Onyemenam has commended Galaxy Backbone for completing and commissioning the first phase of a nationwide national identity management ICT infrastructure network.

Speaking during the commissioning tour of NIMC state offices in the South-South last week, Dr Onyemenam said that "data and biometric capturing will soon commence across the 36 states and the federal capital territory with this commissioning of the nationwide area network (WAN) by Galaxy Backbone and the recent signing of concession agreements with some ICT partners". The contract was awarded to Galaxy Backbone in 2008.

The Chief Executive Officer reiterated the fact that the focus of NIMC has moved from mere issuance of national identity cards to the implementation of a national identity management solution that will conform to world class standards.

He said that "the process would begin in about three months and explained that in the new system people would be issued fresh identity cards, different from what was currently in circulation. He, however, clarified that current holders of the identity card would have them revalidated.

Dr Oyemenam explained that the validation process will entail that people who currently hold the national identity cards, will go through some kind of re-registration, particularly in finger printing. "A validation process will take place. You know that during the first exercise, six finger prints of people were taken but in this new one, we are going to take 10 finger prints.

But in this transition period, the cards in circulation now are still going to be useful although we will no longer re-issue that card. We will issue a different card henceforth. Before we begin the issuance of the new card, we want to put in place a data base for all time that you can only be updating."

He observed that the system used in the previous national identity card registration under DNCR by Sagem of France was a major source of errors discovered in the biographic data processes.

He said that the nationwide national identity ICT infrastructure deployed by Galaxy Backbone is part of the connectivity network infrastructure that is required to enable us transmit data electronically.

The Commission will soon take delivery of the infrastructure which will accelerate the electronic transmission of our database "in the next three months once the registration centres are ready".

"The ICT infrastructure will enable us to build a secure, reliable national identity data base because once the data is processed; a unique national identification number will be issued to people. That is what we want to achieve and once we achieve that, it becomes easy to issue a smart card and to do so many other things".

Dr Onyemenam further explained that the contract approved by the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) in 2008 and awarded to Galaxy Backbone was for the provision of a 12 km fibre optic network in the FCT that connects 14 Federal Government agencies to the NIMC headquarters in Abuja; the data hosting of the national identity management database at the Government Data Centre in Abuja operated by Galaxy Backbone; an Offsite Data Backup/Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity facility located in the North-West zone as well as the provision of dedicated VSAT connectivity to the 36 states offices, the FCT and the Commission's head office.

Also speaking at the commissioning, Mr. Gerald Ilukwe, Managing Director, Galaxy Backbone said that the implementation of a national identity management scheme plays a key role in national security and is a major pillar for national development. He noted that the present national identity management system is designed to support several segments of the economy, ranging from traffic management, conducting elections, healthcare delivery, and financial services among several others.

Mr. Ilukwe noted that Galaxy Backbone was aware that the success of NIMC in achieving the objectives of a robust national identity management system by using the company's network infrastructure will also impact on the success of his own organization. He therefore pledged that the ICT Company, which is also Federal Government-owned, will continue to support NIMC programmes.

Galaxy Backbone is a public enterprise of the Federal Government established in 2006 to build and operate a single nation-wide IP broadband network to provide network services to all Federal Government MDAs. The company is also the provider of transversal infrastructure and services to all Federal Government MDAs, e.g. manage Government Data Centers and databases, Identity Management, IP-telephony and other solutions, and will leverage the capacity of the network to provide connectivity, internet access and extend Government services to rural and underserved communities.

Currently, the company has connected over 250 MDAs of the Federal Government to its network, with over 2,500 remote sites across the country and rolling out a 200 km metro-wide fibre optic network within the FCT, Abuja.

On his part, the Manager, Corporate Communications, Galaxy Backbone, Mr. Franklyn Ginger-Eke, disclosed that the project would help to change the manner in which the business of identity management was being done before now. "What Galaxy is doing is providing the ICT component for the new national identity management system as well as ongoing support service for the duration of the contract"