E-Business
All Nigerians to Get NIN by Dec 2014
President Goodluck Jonathan has directed the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to ensure that all eligible Nigerians are registered in the National Identity Database by December 31st 2014..
The President also directed that by the same date all 14 government agencies requiring identity verification and authentication services or those involved in data capture activities must also align their activities with a view to switching over to the NIMC infrastructure.
The President stated this at the formal launch of the enrolment exercise for the issuance of the National Identification Number (NIN) at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa.
The launch which featured a generation of a National Identity Number for the President ended with the slogan – ‘Enrol Once and be Identified for Life’.
President Jonathan noting the need for harmonization of database of different agencies of government, said that the cost of operating multiple discordant databases and infrastructure in the country is unsustainable.
“Government cannot afford the continued proliferation of data capture activities. The proliferation does not grant any advantage in efficiency neither does it make good economic sense. The growing identity verification needs, therefore calls for harmonization and integration of identity databases and the development of a universal service infrastructure,” he said.
The President noted that Nigeria cannot be an exception to the global trend towards Identity Management and Centralised National Identity Database.
“Already, there is a growing quest for specific databases and identity verification by several government institutions and private sector organizations in our country.”
He further noted that: “If the work of law enforcement officers must be enhanced; if consumer credit is to be accessible; if we are to reduce the cost of managing the naira cash component currently estimated at N192bn per annum; if we are to reduce the amount of currency in circulation currently put at N1.93tn; if we are to achieve a multiple pronged approach to the fight against corruption; and finally, if we are to introduce social security or welfare payments, then we must, first and foremost, establish and verify appropriately, the identities of individuals.”
The President stated that while government remains committed to the accelerated development of the National Identity Management System (NIMS), the private sector must also rise up to its role.
“Corporate operators must seize the unique opportunities provided by the Concession Agreement, to make investments in the scheme,” he said adding that the participation of the private sector participation would mean an “extended optimization of resources typically devoted to addressing issues of Proof of Identity across the nation. It would also mean seamless integration and use of a common facility for identity verification and authentication, in both the public and private sectors”.
He also directed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy to ensure that the objective of the project which is aimed at streamlining biometrically-linked databases and optimizing scarce resources, are accomplished on record time.
Speaking at the launch, Chris Onyemenam, DG of the NIMC noted that the main identification is the NIN generated upon registration and is not transferable.
He added that the issued Identity Card has multiple uses and can be used for financial operations linked to MasterCard, Verve and Visa.
He noted that the new identification system will help to eliminate identity related fraud, and all forms of deception adding that by December 31st 2013, they would have mobilized for registration to strategic places like military formations, university campuses etc to fast track the enrolment process.
The Minister of Interior Abba Moro, who spoke to journalists after the launch, noted that what the identity management commission will do is to coordinate and manage the entirety of all identification arrangement in the county.
“It is just like the back galaxy, if you want to establish any digital arrangement certainly you must key in and align with the back bone galaxy,” he said.
Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CrediCorp), has partnered Fintech Association of Nigeria (FinTechNGR) to drive consumer credit scheme initiative through a robust payment platform that would be provided by members of FinTechNGR.
Speaking at a Social Meet in Lagos, organised by FinTechNGR, with the theme: “Augmenting the Future, AI, Credit and Transformation of Nigerian Finance,” the Chairman, CrediCorp Board of Directors, Aderemi Abdul-Bojela, said members of FinTechNGR would have specific roles to play in the partnership, in the areas of providing robust platform for money transfer, technology evaluation, among others.
“Today, CrediCorp is engaging with members of FinTechNGR in a social interactive gathering to discuss collaboration and support for the growth of Consumer Credit Corporation in Nigeria. We want to interact to understand how technology will drive the crediCorp initiative in Nigeria and also to understand the role that members of FinTechNGR will play in all of these initiatives around CrediCorp,” Abdul-Bojela said.
Describing the partnership as a welcome development that will enhance savings culture among Nigerians, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of FinTechNGR, Dr. Babatunde Obrimah, said: “FinTechNGR is an enabler of technology advancement in Nigeria. We bring the players together to drive technology innovation.
“Our role in the FinTechNGR-CrediCorp partnership is to ensure that our members support the growth of consumer credit in Nigeria, by providing the relevant payment platforms for all financial transactions among the banks who are the lenders, the customers who are the burrowers and the CrediCorp who is the guarantor.”
Speaking about the benefits for Nigerians, Obrimah said the Consumer Credit Corporation in Nigeria would enhance the country’s credit culture and enable Nigerians to save and plan well with their savings. “The initiative will address inflation, help in liquidity flow, build trust in customers’ borrowing, boost credit culture and enhance the culture of savings among Nigerians,” Obrimah said.
Addressing the issue of risk and consumer trust, Abdul-Bojela said the CrediCorp has put measures in place to ensure that the banks that would be involved in lending, would be protected and guaranteed of the repayment of the loans within the CrediCorp ecosystem.
He said there would be an independent management that would ensure that the right technology is put in place to recover all monies.
Kashifu Abdullahi, director general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), announced plans to integrate digital literacy into Nigeria’s education system, to achieve a 70% literacy rate by 2027 and 95% by 2030.
Kashifu Abdullah, DG, NITDA
The NITDA’s DG made the announcement on Wednesday in Abuja during a media parley.
He stated that in order to include digital literacy in the curriculum at all educational levels, from kindergarten to university, the Agency was collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Education.
Abdullahi, said that this program would equip Nigerians with the digital know-how and abilities they need to succeed in the digital economy.
He emphasized that NITDA would also launch the “Digital Literacy for All Initiative” to educate Nigerians outside the formal education system and provide access to quality digital content.
Nigeria would train over two million young people in in-demand IT skills in order to become significant global outsourcing hub
NITDA is also collaborating with the Defence Headquarters and security agencies to develop digital solutions to address security concerns, including the use of drones, artificial intelligence, and other digital resources to combat banditry, abduction, and terrorism, he said.
According to him, the agency’s draft SRAP 2.0 plan aims to establish Nigeria as a digitally empowered nation, with a focus on innovation, national prosperity, and inclusivity.
The director general of NITDA added that, if successfully implemented, this strategy could propel Nigeria into a new phase of digital empowerment and leadership in the global digital economy.
In 2023, more than 1/5 of cyberattacks persisted for over a month, the annual Kaspersky Incident Response 2023 report has revealed, with trusted relationships emerging as one of the main attack vectors in these prolonged cases.
The report draws on the results of Kaspersky’s cyberattack investigations throughout the year, gathered when supporting organisations sought incident response assistance or when hosting expert events for their internal incident response teams.
Primary reasons of organisations approaching Kaspersky Incident Response team with service requests were encrypted files (32.8% of requests), suspicious activities (31%), data leakage (20%), and also included non-authorised accesses (3%), service unavailability (3%) and money theft (1.6%).
Among initial attack vectors of the investigated incidents were exploiting public facing application (42.4%), compromised accounts and BruteForce attacks (28.8% in total), trusted relationships (6.78%), phishing (5%), insider’s activity (3.4%).
Kaspersky Incident Response 2023 report indicates that long-lasting cyberattacks that persist for more than a month constituted 21.85% of the total, increasing from 2022 by 5.55%.
One notable trend observed in these attacks was the exploitation of trusted relationships as a primary vector. Compromises leveraging trusted relationships have occurred previously, but in 2023 their frequency increased.
As this method of attack enables threat actors to infiltrate multiple victims through a single compromised organisation, investigative teams face several additional challenges. Firstly, initially targeted organisations don’t always recognise the importance of thorough investigations and may be reluctant to cooperate.
Secondly, attacks initiated through trusted relationships often require more time to progress from the initial intrusion to the final incursion phase. Therefore 50% of these attacks lasted more than a month. A similar proportion of attacks exceeding one month were exclusively registered within the insider and phishing vectors.
“Our latest findings underscore the critical role of trust in cyberattacks. In 2023 and for the first time in recent years, attacks through trusted relationships were among the three most used vectors. Half of these incidents were discovered only after a data leak had been found.
“By exploiting trusted relationships, threat actors can prolong attacks and infiltrate networks for extended periods, posing significant risks to organisations. It’s imperative for businesses to remain vigilant and prioritise security measures to safeguard against such sophisticated tactics,” comments Konstantin Sapronov, Head of Global Emergency Response Team at Kaspersky.
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