Senator Arise Flays NIMC’s Proposed General Multipurpose ID Card Initiative

Sen. Ayodele Arise, a former Nigerian senator representing Ekiti North constituency, has advised the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to prioritize its core mandate of national identity registration and refrain from venturing into the issuance of multipurpose payment cards.

In an interview monitored on TechTvng, Sen. Arise who is the Chairman of Cards Technologies Limited, a pioneer in the card technology space, expressed concerns regarding the proposed multipurpose card, arguing that it would create unnecessary complications and potentially harm the Nigerian economy.

While emphasizing that the issuance of financial cards is the established domain of banks globally, the former Senator stated: “Just like the Social Security system in the US, NIMC should just take the registration of Nigerians.

The banks everywhere in the world are the ones issuing financial cards to their people. So NIMC is not going to become a financial institution, and I don’t see how they want to manage, you know, the fallout of this multi-purpose card.”

He highlighted several potential drawbacks, including the loss of revenue for state governments from driver’s license issuance, and the logistical challenges of managing multiple bank accounts on a single card. Sen. Arise also raised concerns about security risks, suggesting that a single compromised card could expose a user’s entire financial and personal information.

“If somebody gets hold of one card and can crack into it, that person has cracked into your bank, has cracked into your details as an individual,” he warned.

The former Senator, who is reputed to have brought Mastercard to Nigeria criticized past attempts by NIMC to partner with banks on card branding, arguing that it created an uneven playing field for financial institutions. He advocated for NIMC to concentrate on expanding national identity registration coverage, aiming to capture as many Nigerians as possible.

“The focus now should be, let us get as many people as possible registered, having the national ID, national number,” he said, noting that a significant portion of the population remains unregistered.

He further argued that the current system, where individuals possess separate bank cards, driver’s licenses, and national identity cards, is efficient and aligns with international best practices.

He also questioned the logic behind unifying all services onto one card, suggesting it would create unnecessary complexity.

“The person that has his debit card today can go to any bank collect money that does not disturb the fact that his card is in his pocket,” Sen. Arise stated. “And that card, you can put a BVN number on it, or the multi-purpose one, you can put a driver’s license number on it.”

While acknowledging that the government would not bear the direct cost of the multipurpose card as users would pay for it, he maintained that the initiative was unnecessary and potentially detrimental.

He reiterated that the issuance of driver’s licenses should return to the state government to increase their internally generated revenue and that the federal government should not attempt to centralize services that are best handled at the state level.

“Let them focus on issuing national identity cards, and be sure that we can understand that that’s your national identity card,” he concluded.

Senator Ayo Arise is a dynamic ICT expert, a respectable planner, incisive politician, philanthropist and an astute businessman.

Senator Ayo Arise’s pioneering role and foresight in the incorporation of Card Technologies and the subsequent establishment of the first Third Party Processing Facility in sub-Sahara Africa for MasterCard International paved the way for the issuance of MasterCard by banks in Nigeria to their customers. This opened up the door of opportunity for Nigerians to embrace e-commerce as it is known today in Nigeria.

He is also a pioneer member of the committee on Guidelines on Electronic Commerce in Nigeria, the Imaging Association of America and many other international bodies that review the Card business throughout the globe.