Obaseki commends digital identity scheme

The Executive Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has described the Smart Digital Identity initiative of the state as the most ambitious in Nigeria and a critical enabler of government’s technology programme implementation roadmap.

Governor Obaseki said this during the official launch of the Edo State Residency Card at the 2022 edition of the state’s yearly investment summit tagged, ‘Alaghodaro ‘22’, held in Benin City.

He said the Edo Card is unique as it links directly with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) database to provide one single form of identity for residents of the state in line with global best practices.

“When we started this project, the goal was to leverage technology to create a sustainable identification framework that will support government’s interaction with our people, expand the social network as well as enable a strengthened, more inclusive and targeted public sector service delivery that is guided by empirical data. The launch of the smart residency card marks a significant milestone in our journey and the target is to have no less than one million cards issued by 2024,” he said.

Co-founder/Chief Executive Officer of VerifyMe Nigeria, technical partner on the project, Esigie Aguele, commended the state government for leveraging private sector expertise in actualising the project.

“As a leading digital identity infrastructure provider in Nigeria, we are honoured to partner the Edo State Government in delivering this landmark project. We are optimistic about the benefits of the Smart Edo Digital Identity Scheme, particularly in delivering several trusted data points for citizen engagement, planning and public service delivery in the state.

“Additionally, we are excited to note the strategic redefinition of governance by ambitious states like Edo, which are leveraging technology to document citizens and residents and using that as a basis for social planning. The implication for this project is that going into the future, VerifyMe will be in a position to bring Tier 3 KYC to the 5 million citizens of Edo State more simply as well as provide greater access to credit and open finance,” he said.