An advocacy organisation in Nigeria, Grassroots Addressing and Identity Management Systems (G-AIMS) has urged the World Bank to make the adoption of Addressing and Identity Technology (AIT), a pre-condition for the implementation of the $800m facility it recently approved as palliative to be shared among vulnerable Nigerians, to cushion the effects of the planned removal of petrol subsidy.
In a letter addressed to the World Bank Country Director in Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, by the Chairman/Founder of Grassroots Addressing and Identity Network Limited (GAIN), Mr. Bisi Adegbuyi, it noted that it was imperative, that the implementation process be driven by a bespoke Addressing and Identity Technology to ensure transparency and confidence building.
According to him, "one of the conditions precedents for the process to be transparent is that beneficiaries should be assigned duly validated digital addresses and means of identification. This will also engender a real-time feedback mechanism for transparency and accountability."
Adegbuyi, a public administrator and a former Postmaster General of Nigeria/CEO of Nigerian Postal Service, noted that one of the major criticisms of Nigeria's Social Intervention Programme (NSIP), enabled by World Bank's $500 million International Development Association grant in 2016, was the alleged opaqueness of the National Social Register on poor and vulnerable Nigerians.
"Nigeria's First Lady, Hajia Aisha Buhari, raised an alarm in May 2019, alleging that the NSIP had failed "woefully" because the intervention did not reach the intended beneficiaries.
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"There are many other credible criticisms all deriving from lack of transparency and accountability in the implementation of the scheme," Adegbuyi said.
While welcoming news of the World Bank's grant of $800 million under what is now known as subsidy removal palliatives aimed at cushioning the impact of petrol subsidy removal among vulnerable Nigerians, the GAIN Chairman explained that the organisation had developed and patented a state-of-the-art, ultra-specific digital addressing and identity management systems with a cutting edge technology comparable to any world-class addressing and identity solution.
"Our Digital Addressing and Identity Verification systems software, which won the recognition of World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), an affiliate of International Telecommunications Union, a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) in 2018, can help to provide an end-to-end monitoring tool for the scheme, thereby enhancing its transparency and accountability," he stressed.
Adegbuyi, who represented Ogun State at the 2014 National Conference, therefore urged the World Bank to make the adoption of this technology as a pre-condition for the implementation of the $800 million grant.
