Banking Briefs
DIGITAL identity has been identified as a critical factor for individuals to access social benefits including subsidies and entitlements. Aliyu Aziz, director-general, National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, said identity would remain a pre-requisite for a country’s economic, social and political development.
In his keynote address entitled “Digital Inclusion: Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies” at the 27th annual conference of the Nigeria Computer Society, NCS, Aziz said: “Inability to prove identity is one of the biggest barriers preventing access to benefits, subsidies, exercise of basic rights as well as claiming entitlements. Without knowing who the people are, no government or private sector will be able to effectively deliver important services such as social safety net, elections, agriculture, pension and education, among others,” he said.
Aziz said good identification works together with greater use of internet, payments and skills for a vibrant digital economy. Emphasising NIMC’s role in offering digital identification through the enrolment and issuance of a unique identifier National Identification Number, NIN, he said beyond the term digital inclusion, are issues about quality of life, democracy, exclusion and who gets what, when and under what circumstances.
To actualise digital inclusion with attendant benefits for the citizens, Aziz urged information and communications technology experts as well as government and private sectors to be prepared at all times.
He also advised the country to construct robust high-speed broadband networks, create incentives for investment in new technologies, build required human capital for productivity growth, and rethink curricula to emphasise digital skills.
He listed the benefits of digital inclusion to include social interaction and cohesiveness, well-being, personal health, economic and life changes, self-efficacy, skills and capabilities as well as civic engagement and participation.
The NIMC boss explained the term ‘digital divide’ as “patterns of unequal access to ICT based on income, race, ethnicity, gender, age and geography that surfaced during the mid-1990s when the internet made steady progress.”
He redefined the term ‘digital divide’ as consisting of ‘multiple divides’, namely: an access divide, a skill divide, an economic opportunity divide, and a democratic divide, that qallowed researchers to study the experiences or attitudes of the disadvantaged groups in relation to intervention programmes.
July 27, 2018 @ 12:40 GMT|
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Tags: Why Digital Identity is Critical for Nigerians – NIMC
