National identity card ready soon – NIMC

Director-General, National Identity Management Commission, Chris Onyemenam

The National Identity Management Commission says the National Identity smartcard will soon be made available to Nigerians who have applied for their National Identity Numbers.

It called on those yet to enrol for the NIN to visit any of its enrolment centres close to them to do so.

The Director-General, NIMC, Dr. Chris Onyemenam, said this at a testing exercise on the national identity smartcard facility in Abuja, according to a statement made available to our correspondent on Wednesday.

“Persons who have enrolled for their NINs will soon be issued with their national identity smartcards,” he said.

The NIMC had carried out a user acceptance test on the facility to ensure that it conformed to international standards and best global practices in tune with the defined objective of the National Identity Management System project.

The user acceptance testing, according to the commission, is aimed at meeting the requirements as provided by the Datacard Group to the NIMC, while demonstrating the comprehensive functions of the system, which include communication with other sub-systems in the NIMC, identifying each citizen by installing personal data and applications on a chip and physical customisation of the card to suit each individual.

It also includes a complete delivery of the validated system.

Onyemenam said the test case was necessary to check the factory acceptance test and the system acceptance test configuration.

Explaining the process of the FAT and SAT, the director-general noted that test data was used to encode on the chip of the electronic ID card before it could be printed.

“The smartcard chip encoding application allows for personal information to be encrypted on the chip of the National Identity Card according to the card profiles, while the machine was used to write names on the card,” he said.

Onyemenam added that the process by which the chip on the card was encoded and data written on it was called chip encoding.

He said that the applications currently encoded on the chip were ICAO/e-Passport application, which enable the card to be used as a travel document; the e-ID application, which is the holder’s identity; and the PKI application, which ensures that the card conforms to international security standards.

Others are the MOC application, which will be used for authenticating and verifying the holder; and the EMV application, which allows the card to be used as a payment solution, for instance, as an Automated Teller Machine card.

According to the director-general, the test case processes are followed carefully to ensure that the national identity smartcard is up to global standards and certification before it is introduced into the market.

He said, “The successful SAT and the subsequent successful UAT were done following a successful EMV key ceremony.

“The e-PKI key ceremony was conducted recently, thus making sure the NIMC has completed the full circle of tests and functional systems deployment to ensure a proper and standardised issuance of the national identity smartcard.”

Onyemenam added that the next step was the field testing of the card, which will commence immediately across the country and globally.

He gave an assurance that all things being equal, the field tests would take no more than two weeks and would be successful.