INSIGHT TO BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND COMMERCIAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT

A high point of the NIMC/EKITI  state collaboration was a visit to Governor's Office, picture shows former Governor, His Excellency Dr John Kayode Fayemi, collecting his NIN slip after enrolment.

Following NIMC Board approval in 2012, the Business Development and Commercial Services (BDCS) Department was created to leverage on NIMC’s technical and operational infrastructure by creating a portfolio of products and services ready to be offered to the external market; also to manage NIMC’s interactions with clients and revenue generating prospects in the public and private sectors.

The Department is made up of three strategic units: (1) Business Development; (2) Sales and Marketing; and (3) Customer Relations Management.  To achieve its mandate, the department performs the following functions:

• ·         Engages business prospects in various organizations for profitable collaborations
• ·         Develops products and services to meet their identified needs
• ·         Organizes sensitization workshops aimed at positioning components of the NIMS as a ‘Shared Service’
• ·         Currently setting-up as End User Department of the soon-to-be-launched AVCH services

The team successfully organized a one-day sensitization workshop on the adoption of the National Identification Number (NIN) for recruitment in the public sector. This workshop, held in June 2014 at NIMC Headquarters, had an impressive turn out from various MDAs. Some have returned to NIMC for the purpose of enrolling their staff.

BDCS COLLABORATIVE PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

·         NIMC/Ekiti State Government: This project aims to enrol Ekiti State residents with the purpose of issuing the Ekiti Residency Identification Number (ERIN). The ERIN would help the state government effectively plan and deliver social welfare schemes for its indigenes.

·         NIMC /FMARD/CBN: This collaboration is to ensure the unique identification of farmers based on their National Identification Number and promotes their Financial Inclusion. It also guarantees that Agricultural subsidy payments are made electronically via the farmers’ National e-ID card to eliminate negative effects of 3^rd party agents who subvert the process.

·         NIMC/Vulnerable Children and Orphans Rights Initiative (VCORI): This Collaboration between NIMC, VCORI, NITDA, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs & Social Development and other stakeholders, seeks to build a database of Vulnerable, Adopted, Fostered and Orphaned Children. The National Identification Number would be used to uniquely identify such children & their care-givers in foster homes and orphanages across the Nation.

·         NIMC/MasterCard Advisors (MCA): This collaboration is to ensure the development of geographic prioritisation strategy for enrolment at location with high probability of National e-ID Card. The project also covers development of use cases for the payment functionality of the e-ID card and creation of an awareness plan that promotes interest and usage of the Card.

·         NIMC/ Social Safety Net/Ministry of Finance: This project is spearheaded by Ministry of Finance and other donor agencies. It aims to create a National Social Safety Net Program to target, identify and support poor beneficiaries.  NIMC will capture data of beneficiaries and create a unified, verifiable database to house data for verification, evaluation and monitoring purposes.

OTHERS DEPARTMENTAL WORK

·         The BDCS team is currently designing an Ad-hoc method of verifying NINs for Nigerian Commercial Banks that are increasingly accepting the NIN Slip as an identification document for purpose of bank account opening, pending the Launch of the Authentication and Verification Clearing House infrastructure.

·         BDCS are also working with a Consulting firm who has adopted the NIN as its unique identifier in the management of its scholarship schemes for Oil and Gas companies. Over 30,000 applicants have currently enrolled for their NIN and are awaiting verification.

These two private sector projects would attract a fee for the authentication and verification services.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERINGS

The BDCS team is leveraging on NIMC’s current products and services to derive other products and services that would offer value within the identity management sector, as follows:

PRODUCTS & SERVICES	VALUE PROPOSITION
DATA CAPTURE & SPECIALIZED DATABASES This collaboration service entails the biometric and demographic capture of the client’s specific target group of into the National Identity Database for the purpose of establishing identity. Simultaneously, NIMC has the ability to capture specialised fields would lead to the development of specialized data bases of targeted population segments.	CLIENT BENEFITS ·    Identity for service delivery to specific target group ·    Specialised database of target population segments ·    NIMC’s knowledge base on identity management ·    Leverage NIMC’s infrastructure as ‘shared service’
NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (NIN) The NIN serves the purpose of a unique identifier. This quality enables one to easily verify the identity of an individual for purposes of personal assurance, business or service delivery. For instance the NIN is being used by the FMARD to identify Farmers and ensure the right individuals get benefits accruable to them, eliminating impersonation.	CLIENT BENEFITS ·    NIMC enrolment & registration centres, available nationwide, for data capture and NIN issuance ·    Adopt NIN as unique identifier in your services ·    Meets Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements ·    Identity solution that is verifiable & cost-effective ·    Mitigate possible security concerns
NATIONAL e-ID CARD The National e-ID Card is general multiple purpose card that can be used as Identity Document, Payment Solution & Travel Document. Further applications of the National e-ID Card include usage in the following: ·    International Driving Licence ·    Voter’s Card ·    Transport Credit Payment System (bus, rail & taxis) ·    Tax Application Service ·    Pensions Application Service ·    Insurance Application Service	CLIENT BENEFITS Candidate payment flows that can immediately be migrated to the National e-ID card payment platform: ·    Government-to-Consumer: Social benefits; Payroll to officials; Health expenditure; SME credit; Pensions; Loans to farmers; Grants to students ·    Consumer-to-Government: Passport fees; Income tax; and Road fines ·    Consumer-to-Business: Payment for goods and services; Bill payment; and Transport expenditure ·    Business-to-Consumer: Wages/ salary; Insurance claim; and Agricultural loans
AUTHENTICATION & VERIFICATION SERVICES (AVS) One of the distinguishing capabilities of the NIMS project, as against previous identity card schemes, is the ability to digitally assert one’s identity. The AVS is aimed at delivering continuous cross referencing to the National Identity Database for verification and authentication purposes, would rely on the Authentication and Verification Clearing House (AVCH); a custom built enterprise software application required for the automation of all necessary business rule for NIMS verification services. AVCH verification requests will be brokered by NIMC’s licenced Authentication Service Agents (ASAs) and processes all verification requests (Offline and Online).	CLIENT BENEFITS ·    Cost effective confirmation and verification of a persons identity for customers, applicants etc. ·    Eliminate issues such as Advance Fee Fraud, identity theft, impersonation, establishing entitle ·    Establishment of entitlement to services & benefits. ·    Electronic verification for digital transactions
HOSTING/CO-LOCATION OF DATABASES This is the option for interested organizations to use NIMC secure data environment as a domain to store/back-up their database for business continuity and disaster recovery purposes. This arrangement is based on specific agreements between the requesting agency, and NIMC. Access right procedures can be agreed upon by both parties (NIMC and Agencies).	CLIENT BENEFITS ·    NIMC enrolment & registration centres, available nationwide, for data capture and NIN issuance ·    Adopt NIN as unique identifier in your services ·    Meets Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements ·    Identity solution that is verifiable & cost-effective ·    Mitigate possible security concerns

For further enquiries on possible collaborations, please contact the BDCS department by e-mail:

commercialservices@nimc.gov.ng


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