The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said his administration is collating the data of residents in the state to help the government in planning, ensuring the delivery of essential services to the people.
Obaseki disclosed this when he received the template of the pilot phase of the Edo Identification Scheme, at the Government House, Benin City.
The governor noted, “As a government, we must have data and information of the citizens in the state for whom we are supposed to provide services. As a state, we now need a single source of truth where there is a common denominator that links people and services together.
“For us, this is very significant because it’s happening everywhere in the world. I am very excited that we are linking this to the National Identification Number (NIN) protocol so that whatever we are doing is linked to a single source of identification.”
He continued: “We are very anxious about seeing the pilot roll-out. The whole idea is to see that the five million or more residents in Edo get to be identified and have a source of identity for which the government can get data to plan for them.
“We look forward to executing this and hope that within the 90 days period this pilot ought to have been concluded. I hope to see the reports on this pilot phase so that by the third quarter of this year we should start a full rollout.”
Earlier, the Technology Transformation Lead at Greenfield Consultancy and Allied Service Ltd, Mr. Joshua Ugonna, who presented the template, said the scheme would provide the government the opportunity to plan for its citizens.
