World Bank partners FG, targets 148m digital national IDs for Nigerians

A new partnership between the federal government and the World Bank will see about 148 million working age Nigerians getting digital National Identity Cards by the middle of 2024.

Speaking at a dinner organized by the Ministry of Communications in partnership with the World Bank, World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to eradicating poverty, improving lives and creating job opportunities for the country’s youth.

He said the multilateral financial institution is collaborating with the federal government to ensure the successful rollout and registration of digital national IDs for all Nigerians.

Chaudhuri said, “Our main mission here in Nigeria is to eliminate poverty, make lives better, and create jobs for all Nigerian youth. One of the areas that we think has the greatest potential is the area of using digital technologies to transform. Now to do that it begins with having this digital national ID.

“So one of the main partnerships we have is working with NIMC to ensure the rollout of the registration so that all 213/220 million Nigerians have a digital national ID, beginning of course with all people of working age and I think the target for that is at least 148 million people by the middle of next year.

“The second is helping Nigeria lead the broadband infrastructure for broadband connectivity because without broadband connectivity, digital technologies will lead to a digital divide. So their support has been for good kinds of policies and regulations that will help invite private investment into this space and then fibre

At the dinner which was organized in his honour, Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, announced that the Federal Government has secured a $500 million loan aimed at boosting innovation and entrepreneurship within Nigeria’s digital sector.

“Part of my responsibilities is working with BoI to ensure that we domicile that funding locally in Nigeria, work with firms who manage and invest in businesses to ensure that those businesses that will benefit are true, real Nigerian businesses,” the minister said.