By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Lagos State Government through Lagos State Residents’ Registration Agency, LASRRA, has disclosed that it currently has on its database 4.46 million people who have registered since the scheme began in 2013, out of which 3.25 million are subject to validation for proof of life, with 1.04 million cards ready for printing.

The present population of Lagos is estimated at over 25 million.

Meanwhile, LASRRA is set to re-launch a rebranded new identification card for all residents in the first quarter of 2022.

LASRRA General Manager, Engr. Ibilola Kasunmu, who disclosed this at an interactive session with media executives at the LASRRA headquarters, Ikeja, added that the new scheme is an upgrade of the former LASRRA cards already issued. The new card will be known as “LAG ID”

The new card which is renewable every five years contains a chip that has multipurpose uses and can be accepted anywhere in many places.

Kasunmu, said sequel to the presentation to and subsequent approval of the state Executive Council of the reopening of the resident registration programme, the Agency defined an overall execution plan and had been steadily closing the respective milestones that would culminate in the official re-launch of the citizen registration programme in the first quarter.

She said the project had been dubbed LASRRA 2.0 with six main objectives to identify every resident and maintain a rich database of all residents, provision of data for social and welfare State interventions, issue multi-purpose smart cards to residents, improve efficiency in accessing LASG services, drive the Smart City agenda of the state government and create opportunities for financial inclusion.

Kasunmu said the agency decided to pursue an ecosystem-based approach, such as a cost-effective approach, which is to have private sector inclusion to finance the costs of producing smart ID cards for residents; to increase coverage and speed of enrollment by employing independent agents for the enrollment exercise and creation of a service layer to support verifications data search and value-added services

She stated that LASRRA would implement and provide access to a core set of services, operations and processes and then work with several partners to complete the other complementary aspects of the programme.

Kasumu revealed that Lagos in collaboration with Sterling Bank as the pioneer financial partner of the programme, would ensure the printing of the cards after enrollment had been concluded.

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The LASRRA GM added that the agency’s database, containing both demographic and biometric data, of all residents in Lagos State would henceforth aid effective planning and allocation of resources for security, education, health and financial Inclusion.

On the agency’s landmark achievements, Kasunmu said they included: deployment of enrolment and validation portals for a timely enrolment and validation processes; reopening and deployment of 57 LASRRA outlets and 16 enrolment partners; Cloud infrastructure for online real-time enrolment data upload and robust backend database infrastructure and solution.

Others are: ABIS deduplication solution for unique ID for all residents, API gateway development for secure data validation with public and private sectors, development of 28 applet Identity Card supporting multiple use cases like payment, transport, pension among others and onboarding of Sterling Bank as issuance partner with commitment to issue the first three million Resident cards.

Kasunmu further explained that the Lagos Resident ID card has provisions for 28 applets out of which three are activated at the point of collecting the card.

She revealed the three active applets to include Electronic Identity Information (e-ID), EMV Payment and Transport – LAMATA, adding that the remaining 25 applets would be implemented with both public and private partners in subsequent phases.

“We have already engaged a few under the following headers: Health Application – LASHMA; Pension Application – LASPEC and Collections – LCC,” she said.

According to her commuters could use it in payment and access to public transport, payment for tolls and traffic offences and fines; and could use it for financial inclusion, payment/wallets, social benefits, elderly benefits/discounts, disability benefits/discounts, medical benefits/health insurance, pensions, social subsidies, among others.

Other uses by students for education included: ID to exam halls, access to public library – book borrowing, access and payments for transport – student rates, bursaries and access to discounted school hostels, while residents could use the card for identity verification, access to state infrastructure, libraries, leisure parks, stadiums, museums; Public Car Parks, Bike/Car sharing rides, free parking and acceptable ID for public services in Nigeria – KY.

Also speaking, Ajibola Abari, Head of Registration, LASRRA, said it is likened to four buckets and categories totaling 65 enrolment partners, with partners required to procure equipment for and coordinate enrollment stations.

Abari explained that the areas of coverage by the enrollment partners would be in all local governments and local council development areas, adding that only in Apapa, Ajeromi/Ifelodun, Amuwo-Odofin, Badagry and Ojo LGs that enrolment partners had not been assigned.

Jide Agbaje, Technical Consultant to LASRRA, who spoke on ‘LASRRA 2.0 Backend Infrastructure, solutions and security Overview,’ said residents’ data were 100 per cent secured and protected.

Vanguard News Nigeria