Kaduna State, Nigeria, 21 November 2023 (ECA) - The majority of people without any form of ID live in Africa and represent 470 million of the continent’s population. These people lack access to vital services including healthcare, social protection, education, and finance. Closing the global identity gap requires a coordinated effort and proven interventions aimed at accelerating progress towards Sustainable Development Goal target 16.9—legal identity for all, including birth registration—and SDG 17.19.
In Kaduna State, the ECA has been working in close collaboration with the Kaduna State Government, through the Kaduna State Residents Identity Management Agency (KADRIMA) and the Kaduna State Pension Bureau (KSPB) to implement a Digital ID Use Case to simplify and digitalize the process of identification and verification of pensioners.
The ECA developed an application for the Pension Bureau (KSPB) to replace the physical verification exercise that the 16,651 state and legal government pensioners had to engage in every 90 days. Pensioners had to travel long distances to a limited number of designated bank offices at various locations which was a burdensome process for the pensioners and the KDSG Bureau. There are 23 Local Government Areas (LGA) and 255 wards in Kaduna State with no or very few banks in these LGAs, which poses a significant challenge of getting verified as at when due.
This new application would make it possible for pensioners to perform the mandatory “I am alive” verification exercise remotely on a mobile device. The solution leveraged the state’s Digital ID system called the Master Data Management (MDM) which stores and manages the digital identity of Kaduna State residents. This enabled the automation of the verification and payment of pensions, using remote confirmation of life, based on Digital ID. It assumed an architecture where data requests are made to and administered via an API Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). The API ESB is the digital service that connects and manages the various data repositories via APIs. It orchestrates the delivery of data requests from all integrated systems in a lightweight and secure fashion.
The app is currently in beta testing to allow a maximum number of users to test and provide feedback to improve the experience. The Pension Bureau also tested the platform with 20 retirees who came to the Pension Bureau and used their National Identification Number (NIN) and biometrics to perform the “I am alive” process on their phones. During the test, Dr. Zayyad Tsiga, the Executive Secretary of KADRIMA remarked that the launch of the application is the beginning of the next phase of Kaduna States digital ID journey. Having recorded significant progress with digital ID registrations with an estimated 70% of the population registered, and with the development of the States Master Data Management system, we can now begin to deploy use cases such as this that will positively impact the livelihoods of Residents. This development is also in line with the State’s digital strategy and the State Economic Development Plan (2021 - 2025) which focuses on building a knowledge-based Economy for Kaduna State. The digital strategy contains several e-governance and digital infrastructure initiatives to facilitate usable online solutions and produce vital statistics that will enable accurate planning and decision-making. Professor. Salamatu Idris Isah, the Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Pension Bureau also remarked that the agency is delighted with the launch of the application as it will especially eliminate the travel challenges faced by pensioners who live in remote rural areas of the State.
The collaboration between ECA and Kaduna State is a significant step towards building a knowledge economy for Kaduna State, which with a population of 9.5 million citizens, is the third most populous state in Nigeria and the gateway to northern Nigeria, comprising of 19 states. The collaboration will serve as an impactful example of how the digitalization of government services and processes can spur sustainable development and produce vital statistics that will enable accurate planning and decision-making.
For more information, please contact:
ECA Communications Section
Tel: +251-11-551 5826
E-mail: ecainfo@uneca.org
Kaduna State Government
E-mail: info@kdsg.gov.ng
Website: www.kdsg.gov.ng