The Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project, which will aim to drive progressive change in digital identity and data protection, has been supported in a new partnership with Microsoft, in turn providing a new base for Microsoft to advance its hand in digital ID technology.

During a visit to the project office in Abuja, Nigeria on Wednesday, Nonye Ujam, Microsoft’s Government Affairs Lead expressed his excitement to work with the project and help engineer its success while having already made significant groundwork in data protection and digital identity in the country.

“We are here to ensure that we support you to make things work very well. We are happy with the achievements Nigeria ID4D has recorded in such a short period”, he said.

In response, Nigerian non-profit organisation says it is open to collaborating with further partners and stakeholders to ensure the project cements digital identity innovation in the region and achieves secure data protection credentials.

The project is founded in Nigeria but jointly funded by the World Bank, European Investment Bank and French Development Agency.

Project Coordinator, Nigeria Digital Identification for Development, Musa Odole Solomon expressed that Microsoft would help increase capacity of the project and called on the company to extend its collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission.