FG plans 70m digital data base growth by 2019

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday in Abuja, disclosed plans to grow the country’s digital database to 70 million in 2019.

He made the disclosure at a conference organised by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), in collaboration with ID4Africa Movement.

The theme of the conference was: “Harmonisation of identity schemes and its response to current demand.”

The president also attributed the current wanton killings of farmers in the country to trans-human activities.

He added that if the issue of harmonised identity was not taken seriously, the level of insecurity in the country might get worse with time.

He described identity as an easy tool for governance.

The president, who was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, commended the organisers for their efforts to ensure that every African has an identity.

Buhari said the event was coming at a time when the whole world was working towards globalising digital identity.

He stressed that the measure would improve the level of insecurity on the continent and beyond.

According to him, the Federal Government had been able to raise it’s data base from 7 million in 2014 to 14 million, and 28 million in 2017, while the figure would rise to 50 million in 2019.

The president described identity as the nucleus of a people’s existence, and the safeguarding of lives.

He urged the organisers to make digital identity a global issue that must be addressed.

Chairman of the ID4Africa Movement, Dr. Joseph Azek commended Nigeria for her efforts to harmonise identity programmes.

He said harmonised identity would guarantee free movement of people and goods across Africa.

Buhari disclosed that given the number of delegates at the conference from across the world, Nigeria had broken the record of a number of countries.

The Director General of NIMC Aliyu Azeez explained that there has been a renewed determination to leverage on the available opportunities to turn around the identity management sector in the country.

He however added that this could only be achieved through a public and private sector synergy, as well as immense knowledge sharing opportunity as the forum presents.