The National Identity Management Commission will receive a $430m investment boost from the World Bank to execute the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project.
The agency in a statement said the project aimed to assist the country to empower citizens, especially marginalised groups, to access welfare-enhancing services.
The project was approved along with five others in Washington DC.
NIMC said it would use the funds to increase the number of persons with a national identification number to about 150 million in the next couple of years.
“This will enable people in Nigeria, especially marginalised groups, to access welfare-enhancing services. The project will also enhance the ID system’s legal and technical safeguards to protect personal data and privacy,” World Bank said.
“This is financed through an International Development Association credit of $115m and co-financing of US$100m from the French Agency for Development and $215m from the European Investment Bank,” the statement added.
“The World Bank is ramping up its support to Nigeria in its efforts to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty,” the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, said.
“These projects are focused on delivering better services to Nigerian citizens. This means ensuring that children are immunised and sleep under mosquito net, improving rural mobility with better roads and providing citizens with a unique identification number to be able to better target social safety nets,” he stated.
