New Nigerian ID Card Includes Prepay MasterCard Wallet

First time accepted submitter Adam Oxford writes Nigeria's National Identity Management System — which aims to bring together citizen information databases as diverse as driving licenses and tax returns — was introduced last week and includes a prepay MasterCard wallet. Civil liberties groups are naturally wary about the project, but proponents see it as a way to get financial services to the masses. From the article: "The director general of the commission which will implement NIMS, Chris 'E Onyemenam, said at the launch that the card will eventually be used for border control as well. 'There are many use cases for the card, including the potential to use it as an international travel document,' Onyemenam said. 'NIMC is focused on inclusive citizenship, more effective governance, and the creation of a cashless economy, all of which will stimulate economic growth, investment and trade.'"

Comments

Are Mastercard paying for the privilege?

[Wootery]

Are Mastercard paying for the privilege?

Re:Are Mastercard paying for the privilege?

[bruce_the_loon]

Is MasterCard a bank or a franchise? In South Africa, I cannot get a MasterCard or Visa that isn't an offering by a separate financial services provider, unlike American Express or Diner's Club. MasterCard gets transaction fees from vendors and the annual anniversary fee from myself. The FSP holds the account and the actual credit/debit balance.

Excellent move for the government

[Anonymous Coward]

What simpler than to require everyone to carry a minimum positive balance lest the card is not valid? What simpler idea than for the government to help itself to said balance in case of fines?

I honestly expect this to be touted as a corruption curbing measure as well as humanitarian aid and access to financial services, and then to turn out to be effectively a modern day debt bondage tool. That is, your identity is literally worthless if there's no money on the attached "prepaid" card.

Very cunning move, Nigerian Government. Putting a Royal face on underhanded crookedness, indeed. I salute you, my dear valued friends!

Re:Excellent move for the government

[TWX]

That is, your identity is literally worthless if there's no money on the attached "prepaid" card.

Heh. Kind of like how if you want to do anything with significant amounts of money in the United States, they require that you allow them to do a credit check on you first?

Neighbors were getting solar put on their roof. We figured it wouldn't hurt to talk to the salesman since he was there. He wanted to run a credit-check on us. We laughed in his face. We'll consent to a credit check only when we're at the stage of seeking to actually borrow money, and basically that means only for the purchases of vehicles and real property, and we do it on our terms, through our bank, in advance, not on the terms of some merchant and certainly not through their financing people.

Most people here don't do that. They will go in cold, without having any sort of in-advance approved financing from a lender that they already have a relationship with, and will get screwed. Makes me wonder if this situation in Nigeria will work out the same way for the vast majority of people there, as they won't have sought in-advance to get the backing they need, and will ultimately pay more for whatever because of it.

Re:Excellent move for the government

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Why would you nuke an ID with a negative balance on it?

Even assuming arbitrary malice, it's just not efficient. A debt that the debtor can't afford to pay is a debt you don't get to collect.

In legally and organizationally primitive contexts, like premodern governments or Big Vinny's extralegal lending operation, you do see unproductive means used(debtor's prisons, kneecapping, death); because there simply isn't a way of keeping a debtor on the hook otherwise. In some premodern society where you can move a few towns over and nobody's ever heard of you, playing collections agent is unrewarding. If the loan was extended off the books and doesn't legally exist, your ability to get it paid back by anything other than extralegal means is similarly curtailed.

The ideal situation, for the lender, is one where the target's earning capacity is not impaired, so they'll be able to pay as much as possible; but where they find it either impossible or undesirable to just walk away from the situation. In the case of debt peonage, the debtors are usually at approximately slave levels of human capital investment anyway, so punitive measures don't reduce their(already miserable) earning capacity much; but in almost all cases of better qualified debtors, you really want to touch them as little as possible; but make it impossible to walk away from the debt.

A nice, functional, modern bureaucracy is perfect for that. Without a valid ID that correlates to a suitable history of references, educational credentials, clean criminal record, etc. your life gets a hell of a lot more difficult, and probably poorer, even if you can evade any formal state action against impersonation/non-documented-persons. This provides a considerable incentive to remain at the table; and makes it relatively hard to escape your past. Why shove somebody who owes you money out of that place(where they can still hold a job and make payments, and have a lot to lose if they try to fake their own death or something) and into the underground economy, where they'll probably earn next to nothing and have much less interaction with formalized institutions?

The ability to keep tabs on people across time and place, without necessarily imprisoning or killing them, is about the biggest advance in history for anyone looking to profit from credit.

Re:Excellent move for the government

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

As best I can tell, 'credit check' either has, or is rapidly, mutating into a polite euphemism for 'background check with slight additional emphasis on personal finances'.

It's one thing that somebody might want a credit check if they are loaning me money; but anyone who won't STFU about it(or does; but then runs one anyway) if you offer to pay in cash or a suitably-blessed transfer from a reputable bank is either running directly from a script or interested in something other than credit-worthiness.

Placing all your eggs in one basket

[Technician]

Placing all your ID travel documents and cash in one basket is a really good idea.. Not.

Re:Placing all your eggs in one basket

[Charliemopps]

Placing all your ID travel documents and cash in one basket is a really good idea.. Not.

Given that all of the above would be in the same wallet anyway, I don't really think you have a valid concern.

The government confiscating all your cash in a time of financial turmoil however... that's pretty much guaranteed to happen.

Re:Placing all your eggs in one basket

[radarskiy]

I seem to have missed the part where Nigerians were prohibited from having any other financial instrument. Could you please quote that part?

The actual problem was Nigerians who couldn't get access to *any* instrument at all, i.e. they didn't even have one basket to put anything in, so now they are guaranteed at least one. There is nothing here stopping those who can get something under more favorable terms from doing so.

Re:Placing all your eggs in one basket

[Charliemopps]

The government confiscating all your cash in a time of financial turmoil however... that's pretty much guaranteed to happen.

If they had wanted to be truly innovative... the card would not be a Mastercard, but a Bitcoin hardware wallet,
where the user would have to program it with their Public/Private key pair, and each citizen would be given at least
three... one pair of e-cards primary/backup, and a paper document that could be used to prove ID in order to replace
documents in case the other two were lost, so they could carry the first, lockup the second someplace safe, and put the third in a safety deposit vault.

It's Africa, the later 2 likely do not exist for the majority of citizens. I went there a few years back and it changed my entire world view. The people are poorer than you could possibly imagine compared to the US. You could be literally dieing in the street and nothing could be done for you. Fall out of a tree and no-one you know is around? you're screwed. (I actually witnessed a man die in this very way) But despite that incredible poverty, everyone has a feature phone with built in calculator, messaging, calander, etc... which, unlike the US, they actually use to run their lives. They barter with cellphone minutes, transferring money via their phones. Completely homeless people rent slots in cinder block buildings to run shops off their phones selling whatever they could find to locals and tourists alike. I felt great despair and overwhelming hope for humanity all at the same time.

Re:Placing all your eggs in one basket

[Tanktalus]

That's reserved for things that truly deserve such treatment. That's where I keep my Slashdot password.

Oh hello, submitter and author of original article

[Anonymous Coward]

This appears to be a trend on /. recently: Plugging your own writing, often no more than polished blogs, published on some web-rag. Not that much a problem if you both have something to say and don't over-use the plugging. If either, or increasingly, both aren't true, then it gets grating. Even worse if the website is unreadable due to incessant reinventing of the wheel, badly, using gobs and gobs of javascript where a little html3 would have done Just Fine. But even if that's all sorted, it still would be courteous to admit your affiliations.

Re:419

[ShanghaiBill]

While the "419 scam" is associated with Nigeria, many of the scammers are not actually Nigerian. The Economist published an article about why. For the scammers, a major cost is leads that turn out to not be credulous enough to actually send money. So many non-Nigerian scammers claim to be Nigerian, figuring that Nigeria's reputation for corruption and crime will weed out all but the stupidest respondents.

This CC/ID should help with the corruption and crime. It is easy for a corrupt official to take a bribe in cash, but much harder with a CC. Likewise, a thief wants to steal cash, not a pre-paid CC without knowing the PIN. It will also make collecting taxes easier. In poor countries, pervasive tax evasion means not enough money for infrastructure, or to pay sufficient salaries to government employees so that they work for their salary rather the opportunity to extort bribes. A broader tax base will also pull more people into the formal economy, rather than low productivity work in subsistence farming or running small street stalls.

Re:419

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Sir,
I am an attorney for a very wealthy person, actually a member of Nigerian royalty
We are sincerely requesting your assistance in a matter of the greatest urgency
My client has lost the ability to withdraw money from his national id card wallet, and we require your assistance in this manner
Apparently he has deposited too much money for his account to work properly and we need for you to withdraw the money from the American account and forward it to us
You will be well rewarded for this service
Thank you for your help in this time of need,
Notanother Fouroneninescam esq

Bank account in Sweden

[Anonymous Coward]

In Sweden you atomaticly get an account a a bank when you have a SSN, paid taxes. Think you get it in Nordea issued by the goverment. They are 100% free by law. So Nigerian goverment have parted with MasterCard, and this is a story?

Can I have the opposite?

[davidwr]

Can I have an ID card that is JUST and ID card, with a driver's license that is a separate piece of paper/plastic?

When I present my ID card to cash a check, clear airport security, etc. it's none of anyone's business if I have a driver's license.

After all, other government-issued licenses like concealed-handgun permits, hunting permits, and professional licenses (engineering, medical, etc.) typically aren't on the same piece of plastic as your state-issued ID card. My bank doesn't know or care if I have (or don't have) a gun permit, a fishing license, or an license to practice medicine, and that's A Good Thing.

Splitting the driver's license from the ID card would also be good for military families and college students who didn't have a previous driver's license but who want to keep their "legal residence" where they previously lived - it would allow the state where they actually live to issue them a driver's license (valid in all 50 states) without either forcing them to surrender their existing ID card or giving them a second state-issued ID card whose information (address, etc.) may conflict with the existing card.

It would also solve much of the "short-term visa/expired visa/illegal immigrant" problem at least with respect to immigrants who still possess a valid, recognized non-US-government-issued ID card such as one issued by a foreign Consulate: States would be able to ensure that people who are driving can pass a driver's test, are paying the appropriate drivers-license-related taxes/fees, and are properly insured without having to face the political heat that comes with issuing an official ID card that is valid for purposes other than proving you are legally qualified to drive. If "political heat" is a concern, the document can be stamped "Valid as a driver's license only. Not valid for any other reason. Only valid on days in which the person has a legal right to be in the United States of America [this is for frequent tourists who use non-contiguous successive short-term visas but who want to pay for a multi-year driver's license]. While driving licensee must posses a valid government-issued photo ID card recognized by the United States, the state of [state issuing the driver's license], or the state in which the person is operating a motor vehicle. Licensees not possessing ID cards issued by the US government or a US state government must possess a valid travel or residency document or proof of an exemption [e.g. an ID card issued by a government with a no-visa treaty with the United States] while driving. Not valid after [expiration date]."

"and the creation of a cashless economy, "

[triso]

Nigeria already hes a cashless economy Nobody has any money.