The Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA) has unveiled new multipurpose identity cards for Lagos residents. The card has various features, it can be an identification card, and it also provides a resident with a bank account.
The General Manager of LASRRA, Mrs Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola disclosed this at an interactive session with newsmen in Ikeja, Lagos on Thursday.
“As soon as you have that card, you have a bank account.”
She explained that nearly 200,000 LAG ID Cards are ready for collection, even as the agency scales up validation and registration exercises to get Lagosians captured in its database.
She also disclosed that the agency has captured six million residents of Lagos in its database since the inception of the scheme in 2011.
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Adebiyi-Abiola stated that the goal of LASRRA is to ensure that the government has proper citizen identification. She said the state has migrated from LASRRA 1.0, which is basically to obtain identity cards to LASRRA 2.0. “LASRRA 2.0 is a smart project, so it is in support of the Governor of Lagos State’s THEMES Plus agenda, to make Lagos a Smart City.
“So basically, we know a lot of people in Lagos State may not have access to a bank account, people from the rural areas. This is a way of providing them with financial inclusion, so anybody who gets the LAG ID card immediately will get a bank account which they can use.
“You can also use it to access transportation in Lagos State. You can use it on BRT and Blue Line.
“When the Red Line is launched, you can also use it. For those of us using the train, you have to buy a cowry card, with N500, but with a LAG ID Card, you don’t need to spend that money.
“We are also finalizing integration with the Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA). LASHMA is the mandatory health insurance scheme of the Lagos State Government. In partnership with LASHMA, you can access your LASHMA account once that is finalized using your LAG ID Card,” Adebiyi-Abiola stated.
According to her, the LAG ID Card rests on a very strong and futuristic security framework which means that “you can have other features in the card. Currently, the card has 28 integrations.
“The first is identification, so you can use it as an ID card, the second is the wallet, you can use it at a POS terminal, you can use it at an ATM just like any bank card and you can use it as transport card. Even private organizations can partner with us by putting their features on our cards. We are also in touch with various Lagos State MDAs where you can actually now access Lagos State services using the LASRRA number and LAG ID card”.
Adebiyi-Abiola added that LASRRA offices are in every LG and LCDA in Lagos State, saying that Lagosians could get their demographic information, biometrics and others captured by the agency’s officers.
She said the government is collecting such information to help the state plan better for the masses.
“People may ask questions, you have NIN; before you get a phone number you must have a NIN. Why is LASRRA important? LASRRA is important because it allows Lagos State to have information about our residents; as a state, we need to know who is in Lagos State, what they are doing in Lagos, how many of them and where they live. We can provide them with better services. Having the LASRRA database is actually the first frontline for Lagos State to provide adequate services for the people,” she stated.
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On validation, the LASRRA General Manager said: “We have about six million people in our database and we are growing, quite a few of our records need to be updated. We need to ensure our records are up to date.
“For instance, a lot of our records were input some years ago before 2018, so it is important that before we print the people’s cards, they come to update their data. We have a validation mechanism that has been put in place to ensure people validate their records.
“For those who have their temporary slips, LASRRA has a simple way to check your mechanism, you can easily do it from your phone. It has to be the number you use in registering, type in the shot code *347*641#. Once you type it in, they will tell you whether you need to revalidate or not,” she stated.
Adebiyi-Abiola said some of the challenges encountered by LASRRA stemmed from the fact that Lagos is always striving for excellence.
“The reason is that we want to be the best, in the quest for perfection, there were some challenges. We want to ensure that the local content is fulfilled; what we did was to ensure all the players in the project are local players.
“The card is being printed locally in Nigeria that is one of the challenges we have faced and that is why people have not been getting their cards. Once the card is printed, we batch it on where you reside. The card will first be brought to the LASRRA office, we will then send SMS messages to people to come for their cards and for those who did not get them, we call them. We have close to 200,000 cards waiting for collection,” she added.