Senior Special Adviser to the President on Information, Communication and Technology, Lanre Osibona, has reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to bring affordable digital financial services closer to Nigerians who are un-banked or under-banked.
Osibodu made this assertion in his keynote address at the Lagos Fintech Week in Lagos, recently.
The Lagos Fintech Week is a week of distinct fintech events that delivers exciting discussions, stimulating demos and insightful debates.
He said that digital financial services were critical to building a robust digital economy and government was determined in using it to make financial services affordable to everyone, irrespective of their status and gender.
He added that part of the efforts by government to embark on the digital financial services was the rollout of digital identity to register all Nigerians and legal residents with a digital identity – the National Identity Number (NIN).
“For those who have registered, they can verify their NIN by typing *346# from their registered phone number. We inherited the record of five million registered Nigerians when we assumed office and we have grown the number to over 37 million registered Nigerians,” he said.
He also stated that government has put in place a number of initiatives that include FEC’s approval of the strategic road map for harmonisation of all silo identity agencies, developed data protection and privacy bill to ensure trust between the government and citizens.
He said the Federal Government was expected to have set up an independent Data Protection Agency.
“This is currently in the National Assembly for final adoption before being signed into law,” he added.
The President’s senior adviser also mentioned that government is developing a robust cyber security framework on the outcome of the cyber security assessment initiative.
“We have upgraded the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) technology in order to scale the number of records it can hold and working with a number of stakeholders including the private sector to develop strategy for e-commerce in the digital economy.”