With more than 160 million inhabitants, Nigeria is running an electronic identity card project. A multipurpose identity document will eventually support more than a dozen applications, including two-factor online authentication and health insurance. The eID card will bring electronic payments to those citizens without a bank account who have only fringe access to the financial system. By combining security mechanisms such as Public Key Infrastructures (PKI), biometrics, and EMV payment, the Nigerian eID card represents a next generation of identity documents, it is claimed by the German company behind the PKI of the card, cryptovision. The firm says that this eID project outweighs the German electronic identity card (nPA) in the size of the project and variety of applications.
To secure both the eID card and the backend infrastructure, the Nigerian eID uses one of the largest PKIs in the world. It includes at least eight certification authorities, and about a dozen certificate types, and will eventually host more than 100 million Nigerian citizens and legal residents over the age of 16. This PKI represents the backbone and the security base of the Nigerian eID system. It provides digital certificates for the card holders to use for digital signature and authentication, and ensures that only authorised devices have access to the eID chip for reading personal data. By employing authentication mechanisms, fine grained permissions allow for authorized systems to read and even update personal eID chip data at specified agencies.
The Nigerian Identity Management Commission has selected the product CAmelot provided by German-based vendor cryptovision. Gelsenkirchen-based cryptographic cryptovision CEO Markus Hoffmeister says: “We are proud that our PKI software CAmelot is used in one of the most exciting e-ID projects of our days.” Visit http://www.cryptovision.com/.
