The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has commenced operations of the National Public Key Infrastructure (NPKI).
The commencement of the National Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) operations was unveiled on Tuesday 29th June 2021, by the NITDA Director-General, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi.
It was performed 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 Conference Room of the Digital Centre, NITDA’s Corporate Head Office, and 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.
NITDA said in a statement signed by Mrs Hadiza Umar, Head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations that “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 cybersecurity – confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation.”
The statement further noted that the deployment of the national PKI 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).
It will also provide Accreditation and Authorization of Web applications which can be utilized by startups, MSMEs and corporate organizations; Local and cheaper digital certificates for Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) email signing and encryption for organizations.
The national PKI will also 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.
DigitalTimesNG recalls 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 national PKI will, therefore, facilitate effective administration and regulation of the national PKI, 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 will further enhance the use of digital certificates to authenticate documents, in line with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a Digital Nigeria (NDEPS).
