The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, has said that the sustained technological reforms in Nigeria’s driver licensing system have significantly improved transparency, reduced fraud and strengthened road safety administration nationwide.
The Assistant Corps Marshal, ACM, in charge of Operations, Olusegun Ogungbemide, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, on Thursday in Abuja.
Ogungbemide, the former Corps Public Education Officer, CPEO, said the FRSC had adopted several technological upgrades aimed at improving efficiency in the production, verification and distribution of driver licences across the country.
He explained that one of the major improvements was the activation of a second driver licence print farm in Lagos with the capacity to produce about 1,800 cards per hour.
He also informed that the corps has also overhauled the print farm in Kado, Abuja to enhance its operational efficiency and support faster processing of driver licences.
He said another notable innovation was the introduction of a contactless biometric capture system which allowed premium driver licences to be printed within 24 hours.
He added that the FRSC had also strengthened its card distribution system, enabling faster dispatch of printed licences to State Motor Vehicle Administration offices for collection by applicants.
He explained that Nigeria’s National Driver Licence database also played a crucial role in verifying drivers and preventing fraud within the system.
This database, according to him is domiciled with the FRSC and it is fraud-proof. Its integrity has made the Nigerian driver licence acceptable in some Western countries because there is provision for authentication.
The digitalisation of the licensing process has greatly reduced cases of fake driver licences in Nigeria.”
Ogungbemide also said that public awareness had increased significantly, with many Nigerians now understanding that the legitimacy of a driver licence depended largely on the process through which it was obtained.
He noted that the licensing process now commenced with the acquisition of digitalised driving school certificates generated through a highly automated system.
”The code generated from the digitalised certificate is required to access the portal for processing the driver licence before the applicant proceeds for biometric capture, unlike the past when passports were used,” he said.
He clarified that biometric capture mainly served the purpose of authentication rather than determining the competence of an applicant.
He also clarified that the responsibility of confirming the driving competence of applicants lay with the Vehicle Inspection Service, VIS.
He said, “The major role of biometric is to authenticate the data and status of the applicant. It has nothing to do with how qualified the applicant is.
”It is the responsibility of the VIS to ensure that the individual they present to FRSC for biometric capture has been tested and confirmed to be a qualified driver.”
He however said that in spite of the improvements, certain challenges still affected the driver licence processing framework in the country.
He noted that many Nigerians still attempted to circumvent established procedures instead of following the transparent and authentic process required to obtain valid licences.
He added, ”People celebrate the strict process in Western countries but want to cut corners in Nigeria, thereby putting up various strategies to compromise the system.”
Ogungbemide said in view of this, the FRSC was working closely with driving schools across the country to ensure that drivers receive proper training before licences were issued.
He listed several measures adopted by the corps to regulate and strengthen the operations of driving schools to include regular workshops for proprietors and instructors of driving schools to update them on global standards and best practices.
He added that strict criteria were applied in the ratification of driving schools to ensure they meet international standards.
He also said that regular inspections were carried out to ensure compliance, while ratified driving schools were publicly listed on the FRSC website.
He disclosed that the corps also maintained a strict disciplinary framework, including the immediate blacklisting of driving schools found to be involved in infractions.
He further disclosed that the FRSC was exploring the possibility of introducing fully digital or mobile driver licences in Nigeria.
He enthused, ”Any advancement that will add value to the entire process is being assessed. Future full digitalisation of the process is actually the way to go, while mobile driver licences are convenient and safer to operate.
”With advances in technology and personnel capacity building, we can achieve this pretty soon,” he said. NAN