Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

The 23rd Federal Executive Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, Wednesday approved the registration of about three million Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) now taking refuge in camps across the country.

The registration, according to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami, is to enable the federal government fully capture their accurate number and make adequate provisions for their well-being.

Pantami, added that the Council also approved the establishment of the National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center.

Speaking of the need for the identification policy for IDPs, the Minister said the FEC considered the fact that providing for the internally displaced, adequately required data, adding that getting registered in the national database of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is mandated by law.

“As we all know that National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Act 2007 has made it mandatory that each citizen must require a National Identity Number, according to the Act’s section 5, and section 27 emphasises that it could be an offence not to acquiring the number.

“Most of us here do not have the number, but they have at least a form of identification, an official one; either driver’s license, passport for travelling and many more, but people in IDP camps do not have that usually, so we come up with a policy that will prioritise providing national identity to people living in IDPs. The policy has been entitled as National Policy for Digital Identification for Internally Displaced Persons.

“This digital ID will support government in knowing the total number of our IDPs, budgetary provision on how to take care of them, national planning with regards to their education, health and many more.

“When it comes to social intervention being provided by the federal government, through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, government will have an up to date record of IDPs; their number, their location and everything and government will reach out to them easily through that database that is going to be domiciled at the National Identity Management Commission.

“Based on the report during the formulation of the policy, we have around three million people living in IDP camps in Nigeria, which is more than 1% of our population. In addition, from the records that we have received in the course of the formulation, there is no single state in the country without IDPs; the highest is in Borno State with 1.4 million and the lowest is Ondo State with 1,024 persons.

“This is a policy that will provide an up-to-date record of them so that government will give them special consideration of resettling them and taking care of them. As we all know, no matter how strong you are, if you fail to take care of the weak ones, then automatically you are also a weak one. This is why we come up with the policy to prioritise them”, he said.

On the approval for the establishment of

the National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center in Abuja, which is in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Pantami said the programme is schemed to address the challenges of unemployment and citizens unemployability.

According to him, the programme, which would be run by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), is going to provide training platform for millions of Nigerians in the digital innovation and entrepreneurship interests.

“We came up with this plan to establish a digital innovation and entrepreneurship centre where millions of our citizens are going to be trained as entrepreneurs, particularly in ICT, so that they will be future potential employers rather than being employees.

“This is, somehow, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they have a progremme they call Regional Entrepreneurship Accelerated Programme (REAP), where they support a country or an institution to produce many entrepreneurs in the area of their choice.

“So, our focus, looking at our mandate in the ministry, is on the development of ICT and this centre is going to be managed by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), while the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy is going to provide the policy direction for the centre and to supervise the implementation of the policy. It is going to be completed in three years”, he said.

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Meanwhile, the council also approved N62 billion for the construction of Kano-Dawakin Tofa-Gwarzo road linking Kano and Katsina States.

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola made this disclosure revealed this while briefing State House Correspondents on the outcome of this week’s deliberations.

He said: “The Ministry of Works and Housing presented one memorandum for the construction of Kano-Dawakin Tofa-Gwarzo-Dayi road and it was approved for N62.7 billion, to be executed in 24 months.”

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said the council also approved the sum of for the introduction of platonic medical records and management for the National Health Insurance Scheme NHIS.

He said the platform will help manage payments and claims as well as health records of patients to enhance transparency and accountability.

“The Ministry of health presented a memo on behalf of the National Health Insurance Scheme, to introduce platonic medical records and management in a concept known as e-NHIS, creating an electronic governance platform.

“This will allow interoperability with all other stakeholders including particularly the State Health Insurance Schemes, Health Management Organisations and hospitals, who offer services to patients.

“This will be a platform for managing payments and claims and also patient records to install transparency and accountability. This is necessary because the basic healthcare provision fund is going onstream and will include a large number of people being registered, so that we move away from paper to electronic management,” he explained.

The minister said the project is being carried out by Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) under the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy through its agency, Galaxy backbone, who were chosen in preference to a foreign company that charged higher.

Ehanire also said the benefits for using an indigenous company were many, which include job creation and data security among others.

The Minister of Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, disclosed that the Council has ratified Nigeria’s membership of African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCTA).

According to him, with Wednesday’s ratification, Nigeria has been able to beat the 5th December deadline set for all countries to ratify their membership of the Afrian free trade zone.

He said: “The Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment presented a memo today asking the Federal Executive Council to ratify Nigeria’s membership of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA).

“You remember that on the 7th of July, 2019, Nigeria signed the AfCTA agreement in Niamey during the 12th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU). The effective date ought to have been July 2020. But as a result of the pandemic, it was postponed to the 1st of January 2021. And all member-states were given up to the 5th of December to ratify the agreement.

“That is precisely what Nigeria did today. The Federal Executive Council approved the ratification of the membership of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement. It was ratified and as such, we beat the deadline of the 5th of December. Effectively, we hope that by 1st of January 2021, the agreement will come into force. “

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