By Emma Okonji
The
Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC),
Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, has said the surest way to achieve digital
transformation is through the unbundling and restructuring of provision
of financial services by relevant authorities.
This, he said must be supported by government policies.
Danbatta,
who made the disclosure at the weekend, during the Vanguard Economic
Forum Series, which held in Lagos with the theme: ‘Economy-Nigeria’s
Emerging Digital Economy And The Role Of Financial Technology’, said
since digital transformation does not occur in isolation, therefore
supporting policies play an important role in guaranteeing conditions
for it to thrive.
Danbatta,
who was represented by the Head, Academia Research Support Unit,
Research and Development Department at NCC, Mr. Okoh Aihe, said the NCC
would continue to ensure high level of quality of service, security
assurance of networks, information and data protection, to enhance
digital transformation in Nigeria.
While
presenting the keynote paper at the forum, the Governor, Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who was represented by the
Director, Banking and Payment Systems Department at the CBN, Mr. Dipo
Fatokun, said in order for digital transformation to further gain
traction, banks must collaborate with fintechs as well as financial
services regulator to regulate the risks posed by disruptive and
innovative solutions from fintech players.
Participants
at the forum were however worried at the slow pace of digital
transformation in the country, while citing cases of the challenges
Nigerians pass through with the unending SIM card registration, where
Nigerians are subjected to providing the same personal data each time
they buy and register a new SIM card.
They
also complained of the difficulties in providing the same personal data
for various registrations like drivers’ licence, vehicle licence,
biometric verification number (BVN) with banks, national identity cards
with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), among others.
According
to the participants, government appeared very slow in driving the
processes of digital transformation, since Nigeria has no central
repository for data capturing and storage, which they argued, gave rise
to different agencies of government collecting same data from the same
people at different times, and subjecting Nigerians through rigorous
processes of providing the same personal data to different agencies for
different registration purposes.
They
were worried that the agencies that collect personal data, work in
silos, hence the country is faced with the big challenge of data
harmonisation, which they said, impedes growth of digital
transformation.
Responding
to the worries of participants, the Managing Director/CEO, Galaxy
Backbone, Mr. Yusuf Kazaure, said policy implementation would address
the issue data harmonisation.
According
to him, NIMC is responsible to harmonisation and the development of a
single database for Nigeria but explained that NIMC only got approval
from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) two weeks ago to implement a
strategic roadmap for a new digital identity ecosystem in Nigeria. He
said the FEC approval of the new digital identity ecosystem would bring
into full force the implementation of the provisions of the NIMC Act,
which include the enforcement of the mandatory use of the National
Identification Number (NIN).
The
implementation of the new digital identity ecosystem from January 2019,
would address the issue of data harmonisation, and boost digital
transformation across the country, Kazaure said.
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