Link digital ID with location data, ex-NIPOST boss urges govt

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Former Postmaster General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Postal Service, Bisi Adegbuyi, has called for stronger integration of digital identity with physical location data to improve the delivery of public services.

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Adegbuyi said Nigeria’s progress in building digital identity, payment and tax systems would have limited impact if the government could not use the infrastructure to ensure that services and interventions reached intended beneficiaries.

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He made the call in a statement released on Tuesday to mark International Identity Day, observed annually on September 16.

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Adegbuyi proposed what he described as a “phygital” last-mile system linking digital identity and verified location to service delivery.

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According to him, such a system would enable the government and businesses to identify not only who a person is but also where the person, household or business is located, thereby improving the delivery of social interventions, healthcare, food, medicine and logistics.

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“Identity is fundamental. It establishes the person, enables recognition, and underwrites trust and participation in modern life,” Adegbuyi said.

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He noted that Nigeria had made progress through foundational identity, digital payments, electronic transactions and tax administration, but argued that the next phase should focus on translating those systems into tangible benefits for citizens.

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“Amid today’s cost-of-living pressures, Nigerians are entitled to ask: what does our growing digital infrastructure actually do to make everyday life easier, cheaper and more accessible?” he asked.

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Adegbuyi said the proposed system should federate existing institutions responsible for identity, addressing, payments, taxation and social protection rather than creating another centralised database.

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He added that the approach would allow institutions to retain their statutory responsibilities while enabling their systems to exchange trusted and interoperable information, with privacy safeguards.

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“None of this argues for one giant database holding everything about everybody; that would trade one danger for another. The better doctrine is to federate, resolve, interoperate and protect privacy, with each institution performing its own statutory function while systems interoperate around trusted assertions,” he said.

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Adegbuyi said poor location information was an often-overlooked contributor to the cost of doing business and accessing government services, describing it as the “cost of friction”.

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He cited instances where delivery riders spend considerable time locating customers, field officers repeatedly verify addresses, or government interventions fail to reach intended beneficiaries because of inaccurate or inadequate location data.

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“Each of these looks small in isolation. Multiplied across two hundred million people and billions of transactions, they become enormous. And it is ordinary Nigerians who ultimately pay,” he said.

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He argued that integrating identity with verified location could also improve the targeting of social protection programmes by enabling the government to distinguish between beneficiaries based on their actual circumstances and locations.

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For instance, he said the needs of an elderly person in a flood-prone rural community would differ significantly from those of a young informal worker in Lagos and should not necessarily be addressed through the same intervention.

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Adegbuyi also said the approach could improve food and healthcare supply chains by enabling the government and businesses to track the movement of goods from farms and pharmaceutical suppliers to markets, healthcare facilities and verified dispensing points.

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He urged policymakers to shift the focus of Nigeria’s digital transformation from merely establishing digital systems to ensuring that they produced measurable outcomes in the physical world.

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