Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy stated this at a stakeholders workshop organized by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in Abuja on the National Identification Number (NIN) Tokenization Solution.

According to him, the government implemented the solution to safeguard the privacy of people’s personally identifiable information during verification transactions, as well as to prevent the incidents of unauthorized NIN retrieval, utilization, transfer, and storage.

The Minister who was represented by the Director-General of NIMC, Aliyu Abubakar said the full implementation begins on Jan. 1.

He said the tokenization solution was customized to protect personally identifiable information and to protect the sanctity as well as the sensitivity of the NIN issued by NIMC to registered individuals.

“One of the benefits of the virtual NIN is to ensure no third party may carry out any verification, hiding behind a proxy (and without the knowledge of the NIMC, being the Custodian of Identity).

” And also generated Token or Virtual NIN is unintelligent, completely random with no correlation to the NIN and cannot be reverse engineered, even by a Quantum Computer.

“The NIN holder is the only exclusive issuer of NIN and cannot be delegated, “Pantami said.

He said anonymization was also catered for with the attachment of the UserID of the verifier to every verification request, adding that no NIN, no verification.

Pantami said NIN tokens are MDA or merchant-specific and expire after a set period of time, saying that a token generated for company A cannot be utilized by company B.

Abubakar said that the program aimed to rub minds with stakeholders to ensure understanding of the product and buy-in by all.

“We must continue to reinforce the need for every Nigerian to have a digital identity, irrespective of social class or economic status, improve access to all and ensure continuous protection of privacy and data of our citizens and other enrollees.

” We must sustain the momentum by creating continuous awareness programs and sensitizing of the public.

Also speaking, the Technical Consultant of NIMC, Mr. Tunji Durodola said the Digital Token was designed to replace the 11-digit NIN for every usage for everyday usage.

He said NIN had been shared and stored by various entities mostly without the knowledge consent or consent of the ID holder or the custodian of identity in Nigeria, NIMC.

Durodola said the improved NIN slip had a smaller form factor and is available to all who have been issued an active NIN, saying they may be purchased without having to visit NIMC office.

“Some of the pre-requisite of tokenization, one needs a NIN issued by NIMC, the mobile number registered in Nigeria and linked to your NIN,” he said.

Hajiya Hadiza Dagabana, NIMC Director of Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance Services, stated that public awareness is required.

She stated that the tokenization will be adequately distributed in various local languages so that it could be better understood.

Tokenization is made up of 16 Alpha-numeric characters, according to the Nigerian News Agency (NAN). starting with two letters of the alphabet and ending with two letters of the alphabet

It is only issued by the NIMC and is issued by an ID Holder, either via the NIMC MWS Mobile ID apps or via USSD on a feature phone. A mobile number linked to an In is required to participate.

To participate, you must have a minor number that is linked to a NIN.