Yemisi Izuora
The National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, would be deploying the NIMC Verification Service (NVS) to the Insurance and Pension sectors.
The support followed successful implementation and adoption of the platform by most financial institutions in the country.
Separate presentation forums was organised by the Business Development and Commercial Services (BDCS) Department, at the Training Centre of the NIMC headquarters, Abuja recently to demonstrate the verification procedures, had in attendance NICON Insurance Plc, Great Nigerian Insurance Plc, Joy Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, Custodian Life Insurance Plc,Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), SIGMA Pensions Ltd, Pension Alliance Ltd, amongst others.
The Deputy General Manager of the BDCS Department, Mrs. Carolyn Folami, while making a presentation at both forums, noted that NIMC is fully committed to its mandate to be a one-stop shop for identity management in Nigeria.
While noting that NIMC is meant to regulate the identity sector and all transactions related to identity, she disclosed that part of NIMC’s mandate is to work in partnership with all institutions, including the Insurance sector in Nigeria, to ensure that the National Identification Number (NIN), is used for all transactions.
The DGM stressed the importance of the National Identity Management System, and the need to harmonise insurance companies’ databases with the National Identity Database (NIDB), adding that an insurance applet, although yet to be activated, is also included on the National e-ID Card.
According to her, the Application program interface (API) for the NIMC Verification Service (NVS) is already being deployed to institutions like the banks, who can query the system for over 17 million people who have enrolled for NIN and have had their details captured on the National Database.
The team leader for software development, Mr. Olushola Amurawaiye, while making the NIMC Verification Service (NVS) live presentation, said it has two client interfaces – the Standalone Desktop version and the online Web
version. He explained that the NVS can be incorporated into the existing organisations owned software using the NVS’ Application ProgrammeInterface (API).
“At the point of query, data generated by the NVS to the organisation making such request is limited by the access levels granted by NIMC, and the levels range from 1 to 5 depending on the kind and sensitivity of the identity data to be accessed. “Authorized users can generate data from the NVS using the enrollee’ NIN only; demographics only; e-ID card only; Document Number only; biometrics only or both biometrics and NIN,” he said. He further explained that the insurance companies when they come on board can apply for desired access rights and privileges which determine what category of verification they are allowed to conduct on an individual and what category of data they are allowed to view.
He added that the NVS uses a secure, Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection to NIMC’s database, for security purposes and a User Login interface allows the authorised NVS users log onto the system.