The National Information Technology Development Agency NITDA has commenced operations of the National Public Key Infrastructure NPKI.
The commencement of the NPKI operations was unveiled by the Director General, Kashifu Inuwa, in a Key Generation and Handover Ceremony for Root Certification Authority (RCA) for Country Signing Certification Authority (CSCA) and Country Verification Certification Authority (CVCA) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The ceremony took place at the Digital Centre, NITDA’s Corporate Head Office.
It was performed by Veridos Germany and witnessed by the Director General, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Managing Director, Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB) and representative of the Director General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), among others.
Secure communication
As key to the rollout of digital economy services in line with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a Digital Nigeria (NDEPS), the national PKI will guarantee secure communication for all online services, provide security against unauthorized access and disclosure of stored information by addressing the fundamentals of cyber security – confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation.
Empowerment of e-government
The Head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations, NITDA, Hadiza Umar in a statement said, the deployment of the NPKI will empower e-government and digital economy transformations through the provision of:
“Secure data exchange and authentication for electronic transactions protection which can be leveraged by the banking sector and its regulator; the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Accreditation and Authorization of Web applications which can be utilized by start-ups, MSMEs and corporate organizations, Local and cheaper digital certificates for Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) e-mail signing and encryption for organizations”.
She added that the deployment of the NPKI will ensure “trust, transparency, accountability and validation services in the issuance and authentication of digital identity, passports and travel documents, stamp duty, tax clearance certificates, health test results and vaccine certificates among others”.
It would be recalled that in August 2017, the Federal Government issued Presidential directives mandating NITDA to harmonize all Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) related projects in Nigeria, in line with its mandate.
The deployment of the NPKI will therefore facilitate effective administration and regulation of the NPKI, ensuring full use and benefits of the associated PKI-as-a-Service (PaaS), including the issuance of Document Signer Certificates, the management of the Public Key Directory (PKD) via the Country Signing Certificate Authority (CSCA) Master-list.
It would further enhance the use digital certificates to authenticate documents, in line with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a Digital Nigeria (NDEPS).
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is the apex regulator for Information Technology in Nigeria under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
Nneka Ukachukwu
