Chief Executive Officer of National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, Chris Onyemenam has said Nigerians fear of a foreign payment company, Mastercard having access to their personal information was unfounded and not backed by evidence.
Speaking with the media recently, Onyemenam said, “MasterCard is providing functionality for one of the five applets, just as you have with your ATM cards.
“No one complains that your name is on the ATM card, or that that information may be held in America. The concern here is biometric data and other demographic information such as next of kin and son. MasterCard does not have and will never have access to such information.”
“Any suggestion that MasterCard, Visa or any other foreign body will gain access to the database is pure fiction not backed up with evidence,” he added.
“NIMC is the custodian of the National Identity Database and we would be contravening so many national security laws if we ever did so.
“The Department of State Security has scrutinized NIMC and can attest that the commission has put all kinds of processes and security measures in place to avoid such breaches of national security. NIMC has also passed ISO 27001.
“It has even gone as far as implementing its own PKI infrastructure which means that digital certificates and keys issued for each individual are not sent offshore for signing, but are signed internally at NIMC headquarters as Nigeria has its own Registration Authority, RA and Country Signing certificate Authority as well as a host of other PKI systems thereby negating the need to depend on a foreign government to sign our certificates.
“Nigeria has its own OID and we had to apply through the Standard Organisation of Nigeria and International Telecommunications Union, which means that Nigeria’s RA is recognised by ICAO worldwide, making our Card globally-acceptable identity card which conforms to international standards.”