Story highlights
- The World Bank is restructuring the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) project to avoid truncation as the June 30, 2024 closure date passed without achieving its goals.
- Nigeria missed several targets set for the project, including enrolling 148 million people for a National Identification Number (NIN) by June 2024.
- Meanwhile, the Bank said has yet to meet one of the condition three conditions for the disbursement of the complete $430 million for the project.
The World Bank has said it is restructuring the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) project to guarantee complete disbursement of the $430 million pledged for the project by the financiers.
According to the Bank, the restructuring became necessary as the co-financiers, the French Development Agency (AFD), and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have threatened to cancel their financing if the World Bank ceased to be the implementor of the project after June 30, 2024, initial closure date for the project.
Under the financing plan for the project, which was approved by the International Development Association (IDA) in 2020, AFD is to release $100 million and the EIB is to fund it with the sum of $215, while the IDA, an arm of the World Bank is to add $115 million.
“Both co-financers have indicated that they will cancel their financing if the World Bank is no longer the lead financier and implementor of this project.
“As such it is critical that the World Bank extend the closing date of the project to allow continuity across all co-financers and avoid any disruptions to good progress made so far and to safeguard the positive impact it has had on Nigeria’s digital identity infrastructure,” the Bank said in the project’s document seen by Nairametrics.
The project’s closure extended to 2026
With the restructuring of the project, the Bank said the closure has now been extended by two years to June 30, 2026.
It noted that the extension became necessary for the project to respond to the increasing demand for an inclusive and trusted digital ID system that will strengthen the transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness of governance and the delivery of public services and programs.
Aside from the enrolment target, under which the country was expected to have issued 148 million NIN by June 2024, Nigeria missed several technical benchmarks set for the project.
According to the Bank, key activities under Component 2 (Establishing a robust and inclusive foundational ID system) aimed at enhancing the resilience, security, and reliability of the Nigeria Identity Management System (NIMS) have experienced setbacks.
“For example, the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), which processes all biometric data (fingerprint and facial), is almost at full capacity as it currently holds 80 million records.
“It is essential that the ABIS capacity is extended to accommodate 250 million enrollments considering that the Nigerian population is now 210 million,” the Bank stated.
It, however, noted that the associated system upgrade process has commenced and is estimated to be completed by March 2025.
Change in focus
While noting that the restructuring would allow the project to accommodate changes that reflect the latest realities and priorities of the government of Nigeria, the Bank announced critical changes to the focus of the project.
Under the restructured project, the Banking said launching some activities under subcomponent 2 is no longer realistic due to limited timelines, and as such a few activities would be cancelled.
“In that context, and considering the limited time and resources available, it is proposed that the following activities be cancelled: (i) collaborating to build links with a digitized civil registration (ii) conducting and financing a capacity assessment and institutional mapping of National Population Commission (iii) creating a national civil registration database with interoperability with the NIMS and (iv) the development of new mechanisms for continuous digital birth registration with NIN generation.
“The funding that was allocated to these activities will be utilized for the development of a new national identity management system (NIMS),” the Bank stated.
In addition, the Bank said Indicators related to the number of offices of the Nigerian Government abroad equipped to register Nigerians for NIN will be deleted as the Government is now prioritizing issuing NIN within Nigeria in order to ensure access to services for the poor and vulnerable.
One disbursement condition is yet to be met
Nairametrics recently reported that the Bank had disbursed a total of $45.5 million, which represents about 10.5% of the total project’s cost. However, the World Bank said the country has one out of three conditions yet to be met to guarantee full disbursement of funds for the project.
It noted that the first condition was met following the enactment of the data protection law in June 2023 as well as the establishment of the data protection commission.
“Fulfilling this disbursement condition also unlocked access to financing from the two other project co-financiers (AFD and EIB). The second disbursement condition pertained to the acceptability of the National Identity Management System (NIMS). This condition was fulfilled in March 2024 following improvements made to the NIMS.
“One final disbursement condition which has yet to be met is the amendment of the NIMC Act to promote an inclusive and non-discriminatory legal and regulatory framework,” it said.
The Bank, however, noted that significant progress has been made toward fulfilling this condition as the amendments have been drafted and enactment is pending with the National Assembly.
What you should know
The ID4D project approved by the Board of IDA in 2020 is seeking to increase the number of persons with a national ID number, issued by the NIMC to facilitate easy access to digital services in the country.
- The project was designed to close on June 30, 2024, with several targets set for the country to achieve by that date. However, many of the targets have been missed, necessitating the restructuring.
- Aside from issuing NIN to 148 million Nigerians by 2024, the Bank listed other targets to include the issuance of NIN to at least 65 million female Nigerians by June 1, 2024, as well as 50 million NIN to children under 16 years of age.
- Other performance indicators set for the country include the development of pro-poor functional public and private services employing the foundational ID system for the purpose of authentication and service delivery; NIN enrolments in rural areas; and government personnel trained in best practices for legal and regulatory enabling environments for foundational ID, including privacy and data protection, all of which were to have been achieved by June 2024.