Earlyface

Abuja -  The new national
identity card can be used as
Automated Teller Machine
(ATM) card anywhere
there is MasterCard logo in
the world, the National Identity Management
Commission (NIMC) has
said. NIMC’s Director of Technical
Services, Mr Emmanuel
Ogungbe, told Journalists
on Thursday in Abuja that
the commission had
already signed an agreement with
MasterCard. “As opposed to just being
an ID card, the card is also a
cash card. What that means
is you can also use it the
way you currently use
your ATM card. *The old National Identity
Card “So if you put money on
the card, you can
withdraw this money
anywhere in the world. “Two, it’s also a travel card.
What that means is that
very soon, especially
within the West African
sub-region, you can travel
passport-free as long as you have this card with
you. “So this card has multi-
purpose use and that is
why we are calling it a
general-multi-purpose
card, it’s not just an ID
card.” According to him, all that a
holder of the card needs to
do is to present it at the
point of entry of any
country where it will be
swiped. He said the information
about the person, similar to
the ones on passport,
would come out and the
country would allow entry. Ogungbe said that the new
card was error-proof and
would enhance the
security of the country. “We have a system called
automated biometrics
identification system in our
data centre that checks
information of newly
registered people coming into the database against
what we already have in
the database. “If there is a hit, that means
that person was registered
before and of course this
means we will deny new
registration. “So, there is no way of
beating that system for
now; I’m very confident of
that. That will ensure that
you can only register once. “What the bad elements do
is to hide in a way that you
won’t be able to capture
them. But we are saying
with this (ID) we know
who they are and we will be able to very easily locate
them,’’ he said. According to him, if there is
a crime and the police are
able to lift finger prints
from the crime scene and
send to NIMC, the
commission will be able to give the full details of the
criminals. He also said that the card
would reduce incidences of
bank frauds as fraudsters
would be easily detected
and apprehended. “Talk about even fraud in
the banks, where someone
will obtain a loan in a
particular bank, move on
to the next bank without
servicing the previous loan to obtain another loan;
that will become a thing of
the past. “Because once the bank
takes your national
identification number, it
can see all your various
transactions, all various
businesses that you have with all the other banks.” He said that government
had asked the commission
to “register every single
Nigerian and legal
residents” but warned the
aliens against any attempt to use the card to commit
crimes. “If you are an alien and
you think you can continue
doing that and go scot-
free, then the person’s time
is numbered because very
soon, we will get to him or her,” he said. (NAN)