The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and the IDEMIA Smart Identity Group have renewed their collaboration to upgrade NIMC’s biometric system.
When completed, this upgrade will expand NIMC’s capacity to 250 million records. The World Bank supports it through its ID4D initiative. According to the partners, the upgraded biometric matching system will handle 1 million 1:1 and 1:N identity verification searches per day.
The system was designed to support 100 million records before now, but it has already reached around 90 million records and requires this extension to cater to the whole population. The firm said NIMC is on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals set for 2030 by the United Nations, which wants a legal identity for all by 2030.
IDEMIA said in a statement that the system upgrade will allow NIMC to comply with OSIA, an open standard set of interfaces (APIs) that enables seamless connectivity between all components of the identity management ecosystem.
Olivier Charlanes, Senior Vice President of the Middle East and Africa at IDEMIA Smart Identity, stated, “We are very proud to continue our long-standing collaboration with NIMC for the greater good of Nigeria’s growing population. The new powerful system is future-proof and will ensure that all Nigerians have access to a secured, trusted identity, enabling them to exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens.”
Abisoye Coker-Odusote, chief executive officer of NIMC and Chairman of the OSIA Advisory Committee, added, “Taking this next step in the enhancement of our system with IDEMIA Smart Identity was a natural choice for us. We wanted to ensure that we deliver the best-in-class solution to our fellow Nigerians, and the pure power of the biometric matching we will receive ensures that the solution is future-proof for our growing population.”
