Razaq Bamidele
Lawyer, ex-Post Master General and Founder/Chief Executive Officer of a leading advocacy organization in Nigeria, Grassroots Addressing and Identity Network (GAINS), Barrister Bisi Adegbuyi has urged the World Bank to adopt digitally validated addressing system for disbursement of the $800m loan to the beneficiaries.
Adegbuyi, a pro-democracy and right activist explained to the world financial institution the importance in making the adoption of the system as a pre-condition for the implementation of the newly approved $800m loan as subsidy palliative for Nigeria.
The explanation was contained in a letter he addressed to the World Bank Country Director in Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, Adegbuyi said, “it is imperative, that the implementation process be driven by a bespoke Addressing and Identity Technology to ensure transparency and confidence building,” adding that, “one of the conditions precedents for the process to be transparent is that beneficiaries should be assigned duly validated digital addresses and means of identification.”
This, he emphasised “will also engender a real-time feedback mechanism for transparency and accountability.”
Adegbuyi, a renowned public administrator and a former Postmaster General of Nigeria/CEO of Nigerian Postal Service, noted that one of the major criticisms of Nigeria’s Social Intervention Programme (NSIP), enabled by World Bank’s $500 million International Development Association grant in 2016, was the alleged opaqueness of the National Social Register on poor and vulnerable Nigerians.
“Nigeria’s First Lady, Hajia Aisha Buhari, raised an alarm in May 2019, alleging that the NSIP had failed ‘woefully’ because the intervention did not reach the intended beneficiaries.” Adegbuyi recalled adding that, “There are many other credible criticisms all deriving from lack of transparency and accountability in the implementation of the scheme.”
While welcoming news of the World Bank’s grant of $800m under what is now known as subsidy removal palliatives aimed at cushioning the impact of petrol subsidy removal among vulnerable Nigerians, the GAIN Chairman explained that the organization has developed and patented a state-of-the-art, ultra specific digital addressing and identity management systems with a cutting edge technology comparable to any world-class addressing and identity solution.
“Our Digital Addressing and Identity Verification systems software, which won the recognition of World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), an affiliate of International Telecommunications Union, a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) in 2018, can help to provide an end-to-end monitoring tool for the scheme, thereby enhancing its transparency and accountability,” he stressed.
Adegbuyi, who represented Ogun State at the 2014 National Conference, therefore urged the World Bank to make the adoption of this technology as a pre-condition for the implementation of the $800 million grant to achieve the purpose the loan is meant for.
