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Unified Payments Pioneers National Electronic ID Cards' Processing(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) UNIFIED Payments has announced its pioneering role in processing the payment application in the new National Electronic ID Card (eID) being issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), to further deepen activities in the e-payment industry as well as enhance government's financial inclusion drive. According to a statement, with the eID card, citizens will have the ability to deposit funds, receive social benefits, pay for goods and services at Merchant locations within and outside Nigeria as well as draw cash from ATMs around the world. Under the processing arrangement, citizens' identity data will be hosted and managed exclusively by NIMC while payment data will be hosted and managed by Nigerian banks and Unified Payments, a leading payment transaction processing company owned by Nigerian banks. The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Unified Payments, Agada Apochi, commended NIMC for the bold step and the technological achievement, saying that "this initiative will no doubt help to drive financial inclusion as well as further stimulate economic activities in the country in line with the Vision 2020 agenda". Director-General and CEO of NIMC, Chris Onyemenam, said: "Unified Payments was chosen as the pilot processor of the payment aspect of the card based on its exceptional track record. "Being the first Processor in Nigeria certified to process EMV chip cards, the first to achieve the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) certification as well as its ownership by Nigeria banks, it only made logical sense for us to entrust them with securely processing the payment application in the National Identity Card." Copyright The Guardian. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |