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Why & How We Engaged MasterCard in eID Card- NIMC

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National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), has explained MasterCard’s involvement in the national identity registration programme, while refuting claims, in several quarters, of adequacies regarding the card’s payment components.

President Goodluck Jonathan had on August 28, 2014, heralded the official launch of the eID card pilot scheme.

As part of the pilot phase, NIMC has started to issue identify cards with MasterCard’s electronic payments functionality, which raised eyebrows among stakeholders in the IT and financial sectors of the economy.  

Speaking in Lagos during a media roundtable, Chris Onyemenam, director general of NIMC, said that MasterCard was engaged to only provide the payments technology on the eID, in accordance with international standards.

He said, “MasterCard is providing the payments technology for 13million National eID Cards as part of the pilot programme. On completion of the pilot programme, NIMC will announce which payment partner will be brought on board, in addition to MasterCard, for the mass rollout of the National eID Cards”.

On how MasterCard was selected for the programme, the DG said, “MasterCard presented it’s payments solution and business proposal to NIMC for the National eID Card business together with other card schemes and companies. The three popular schemes, approved and licenced by the Central Bank to operate in Nigeria and with significant business relationship with the Nigerian deposit money banks, ‎we’re invited to submit proposals to NIMC. The most responsive and willing vendors was MasterCard”.

NIMC announced its selection of MasterCard as the payments technology provider for the Nigerian National eID pilot programme in May 2013 at the World Economic Forum on Africa held in South Africa.

Explains why MasterCard was selected to the expense of Local companies, Onyemenam, said that, “Let’s get it very clear, ‎all existing payment platforms have been licenced and approved to operate in the local market by the CBN, which ‘opened up’ the market as it were. Secondly, there is really no local company except if you are referring to the former locally-owned company in Nigeria, which also has significant foreign partners in the US.

“The reason why NIMC selected MasterCard is due to its deep experience with similar large-scale government programs around the world, its commitment to advancing financial inclusion in Nigeria and importantly, MasterCard’s ability to meet all the functional, technological and economic requirements of the project.

“MasterCard is also the world’s most-accepted payment brand, meaning that Nigerians can use their cards to pay at millions of MasterCard locations in Nigeria and across the border. MasterCard was also able to quickly develop a mutually-beneficial business roadmap that met all the requirements of the NIMC project plan and timelines. Others are just responding and will be considered accordingly”.

The NIMC DG refuted claims that MasterCard can access personal information and biometric data of the National eID cardholder, thus, “MasterCard’s prepaid technology is just one of the card’s 13 different applications, five of which are currently live. MasterCard payments technology is stored securely and separately from other applets, including the card’s identification applets. In fact, there is a firewall between the payment applets and all the other applets so not even a Point of Sale‎ terminal or ATM can access the secured data that is protected on certain parts of the card.

Also speaking, Daniel Monehin, division president, Sub-Saharan Africa, MasterCard, explained that the Corporation is not involved in the identification component of the program and cannot access the national identification database, any citizen’s personal or biometric information.

He said, “MasterCard never collects personal information of cardholders. All payments account specific information is managed by MasterCard’s issuing financial institutions, they are the banks. All personal identification data including biometric and demographic information is collected, managed and secured by NIMC”.

Expatiating on the payments technology deployed by Mastercard under the program, Monehin said the eID card is a chip and pin card certified according to the EuroPay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) standard for globally interoperable, secure payments, which is mandated by the Federal Government, and it is approved and licenced by the CBN.

The key element of the EMV involves dynamic digital data in every transaction.

“This makes these types of transactions extremely secure and reduces the risk of fraud. When a customer uses an EMV-enabled card to pay at an EMV terminal, it can be instantly identified as an authentic, approved payment instrument belonging to that consumer through a process called dynamic authentication. When used with a personal identification number (PIN), the chip verifies that the consumer is indeed holding his or her own payment card,” he said.

According to him, about 70% of adults in Nigeria who are financial excluded can be integrated into the system through the eID card program, while eliminating the need to carry large amount of cash, among other benefits.

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