Politics

Nigeria plans 3 new national ID cards for 104m Nigerians

Published

3 weeks ago

April 8, 2024

Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission is planning three new national identity cards for about 104 million citizens across the country, which are to be launched next month.

The cards, according to the Technical Adviser, Media, and Communications to the Director-General of NIMC, Ayodele Babalola, would be a bank-enabled National ID card, a social intervention card, and an optional ECOWAS National Biometric Identity Card. Babalola told journalists on Sunday that the three national ID cards within one or two months of the launch.

Babalola stated, “We expect the bank-enabled National ID to meet the needs of the middle and upper segments who typically use banks within the next one or two months after launch. Also, activation of the National Safety Net Card to meet the urgent needs for authentication and a secure platform for government services such as palliatives within the next one or two months. The focus will be on the 25 million vulnerable Nigerians funded by the current government intervention programmes.”

“Digital/virtual versions of all cards will be available for individuals who prefer digital formats, albeit with limited functionalities. Additionally, ECOWAS cards will be issued on an as-needed basis in collaboration with the Nigerian Immigration Service,” he added.

The identity commission announced last week that they are going to make a national ID card that can be used for many things. The statement said that the identity option could be used to pay for all kinds of financial and social services.

NIMC said in a release on Friday that the project was a joint effort between NIMC, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System. Its goal is to give customers more choices while also encouraging service delivery in a more creative, cost-effective, and competitive way.

The new plan is not the first time that the government has tried to make things easier for Nigerians by giving out new ID cards. In 2006, the Federal Government asked an indigenous company called Chams to take on the National ID project. It did, and it was chosen as the best bidder for the national ID concession.

After signing the concession deal with the NIMC, Chams said it would put the concession into action by creating Chams Consortium Limited, a special vehicle whose only job was to carry out the NIC concession. However, the project hit a snag when Mastercard, one of the technical partners on the concession, was accused of working with others to sabotage the concession that Chams won, using technical knowledge and design that Chams gave to them to help others. Chams/CCL invested more than $100 million in the project.

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Politics

African leaders want record World Bank financing to address climate change

Published

1 hour ago

April 29, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Ahead of a World Bank conference scheduled for later this year, African leaders on Monday called for rich countries to commit to record contributions to a low-interest World Bank facility for developing nations.

The leaders stressed that most African countries depend on the fund to sponsor development and combat climate change.

At a meeting in Japan in December, donors will promise to give money to the International Development Association (IDA), a World Bank organization that gives loans with low-interest rates and long terms.

“We call on our partners to meet us at this historic moment of solidarity and respond effectively by increasing their IDA contributions… to at least $120 billion,” Kenya’s President William Ruto told a meeting of African leaders and the World Bank to discuss IDA funding.

African economies were facing a “deepening development and debt crisis that threatens our economic stability, and urgent climate emergencies that demand immediate and collective action for our planet’s survival,” Ruto said.

He talked about the terrible floods in Kenya and the serious drought in Southern African countries like Malawi. If donors promise the least amount that African leaders have asked for, it will be a new high.

The previous high was $93 billion, which was raised in 2021. IDA loans are given out every three years, and donors usually give their money at a world meeting before the loan is given out.

The World Bank said that IDA lends money to 75 poor countries around the world at low interest rates. More than half of these countries are in Africa. Governments use the money to improve access to healthcare and energy, put money into farms, and build important things like roads.

The president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, promised to cut down on the “burdensome” rules that guide lending to countries under the IDA. This would make the process more efficient and get money to countries that need it more quickly.

“We believe a simpler and reimagined IDA can be deployed with more focus to make a meaningful impact,” he said.

Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

1 day ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.