About 10 million residents in Lagos are expected to be issued with the newly relaunched digitised card format by December 2022.
Already, 6.5 million residents had been enrolled on the database by the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA) in the project that started in 2011. The state, however, has witnessed a four-fold increment in registration in the last three years.
This new residency ID, according to LASRRA, is a multipurpose smart card with 28 applets that make the provision of 28 services possible to the cardholders.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu personally relaunched the smart residency card at events held simultaneously across five locations in the State. The locations include Ikeja, Lagos Island, Badagry, Ikorodu and Epe.
The move by Lagos State is to generate a comprehensive database of all persons residing in an upgraded and chip-embedded smart residency card by LASRRA.
The new card offered a transition from an ordinary plastic card, meant only for identification purposes, to a smart, multi-purpose ID that combines biometric identification with other benefits, such as security, financial services, transportation and access to government services amenities.
Lagos started the residency registration in 2011 to create a reliable database to enable effective and realistic planning by the state government, especially for the provision of social services and amenities.
The Governor said: “Today’s relaunch is borne out of the need to embrace change and align with global best practices. We have upgraded the residency card from an ordinary plastic card, for identification purposes only, to a smart, multi-purpose card that combines biometric identification with other functionalities and benefits, that cuts across areas such as security, financial services, mobility and access to government services and amenities.
“Lagos experiences significant levels of daily inbound migration of people seeking economic opportunities and a better life. As a result, our population is rising rapidly, with obvious implications for social services, social infrastructure, and security. It has become imperative for the State Government to re-examine strategies aimed at improving the security of lives and properties of the people.
“This smart residency card being launched today will help us to address the issues surrounding the identification and traceability of Lagos residents, and ultimately help inform the Government’s planning and provision of services designed to secure lives and property. The card comes with an electronic wallet, which can hold funds and be used for daily transactions to support the cashless agenda of the monetary authorities.”
Sanwo-Olu said new visitors in Lagos who planned to live in the State for more than two consecutive months were now required to register for the residency card.
The Governor said Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would be leveraging the database to validate residents to deliver essential services, including health insurance, pension administration, school allocation based on residential addresses, and other necessary social amenities.
Sanwo-Olu solicited the cooperation of all residents to register and acquire the card to enjoy the benefits on offer and to enable the Government to plan effectively and allocate budget for the delivery of good governance against the backdrop of the State’s growing population.
“The political will and commitment of this administration to ensure that we are delivering on our mandate effectively and efficiently has led to heavy and ongoing investment in Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure on multiple fronts,” the Governor said.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Innovation and Technology, Olatunbosun Alake, said the launch of the smart residency card became another foundational layer on which the Government’s Smart City project would stand, noting that the new card would also promote inclusion.
Explaining the details of the re-launched card, Alake said the registration procedure now came with elastic and expandable biometric interfaces to allow updates of information. He added that the card utilises industry-standard security chips that prevent duplicated identities and profiles.
“We have a cloud redundancy system that allows 24 hours operations and a highly rated machine accuracy system. It has back-end cloud workload protection and two-factor authentication to make changes to the information originally supplied, such as a physical address,” Alake explained.
LAURA General Manager, Engr. Abiola Kasunmu said the State could not afford to lag in the age of global digitalisation, thereby making the transition to smart residency cards compelling.
She said the agency was motivated by the resolve to contribute to the overall vision of the current administration by finding innovative ways to improve the efficiency of governance and service delivery for the benefit of the people.
Kisumu said: “We took account of certain limitations inherent in the initiative, developed an ecosystem framework with propositions to include a cost-effective approach to produce the smart ID cards for residents. We are glad to announce that we have been able to secure the partnership of several private sector players on this laudable project as we needed to ensure the card remained free to the residents of the State. Residents are not expected to pay for the card.”
In endorsing the new digitised ID format, Managing Director of Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, said Lagos remained the cradle of transformation.
The high point was the symbolic presentation of the smart residency cards to the Governor and residents freshly registered by LASRRA
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