The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, on Tuesday, said curbing identity fraud in Nigeria and other countries in Africa would help reduce terrorism and other criminal activities.
According to him, the identities of everyone in Nigeria must be visible to eradicate identity fraud.
Speaking at a workshop organised by GIABA in Abuja, he emphasized that this is crucial in the financial sector, as funds are often laundered through it.
He said, “There are two things I think we must get right. Number one that we must get right is what I call individual and corporate identity management. Individual.
“The identity of everybody in Nigeria must be seen. Identity fraud must be nil. It must be impossible for one person to be able to open different accounts or for one person to have an account in this name and have insurance in another name.
“Because in the financial circle, a lot of people, insurance and other things are avenues where people even launder some of these funds. That is the truth. It doesn’t mean it should be the banking sector.
“Banking sector, you don’t know. Even on the stock market, the capital market, and across the board, we must make sure that if you are James Kelly in any way, you are James Kelly everywhere. We must be able to understand that.”
He also emphasized that equal attention must be given to corporate identity to know the owners of companies in the country.
Tunji-Ojo pointed out that identifying companies and individuals would assist the country in forecasting trends, enabling the government to stay ahead of criminals.
He stated, “And we must be able to understand corporate identity, corporate companies, entities, different people. We must know the promoters. We must have real details of who they are, what they are, and everything that they do.
“It is very important. Not until we are able to get that, that we will be able to be ahead, we will be able to forecast trends. If you cannot forecast trends, if you cannot project, if you cannot be able to predict, believe me, you will always be reactive.”
Tunji-Ojo also called for an end to the era of an individual having access to two different countries with different names.
He noted that African countries must tackle poverty to win the war against terrorism.
He stated that countries with low poverty rates, such as Germany and the United States, have no significant ties to terrorism.
He said, “Poverty is directly proportional to terrorism. So, when people talk about physical warfare and terrorism, I remind them that it’s not just physical terrorism—it’s also economic terrorism.”
Source: Punch
