Dr. Ali Al Khouri :
Scientific and socio-economic advancements are utterly meaningless if their benefits do not reach all segments of the society. In fact, the ideal scenario is for the disadvantaged and underprivileged sections to automatically become the primary beneficiaries of all advancements in the society. But that is easier said than done. The skewed nature of scientific and socio-economic development in our times makes it imperative for the governments to consciously and systematically implement policies and initiatives for social inclusion. Affirmative actions aimed at the betterment of weaker sections in the polity have been a distinguishing feature of modern societies that strove to overcome the crippling inequities imposed by geography and history.
Unlike in the past, a redeeming characteristic of our times is that technology enables us to deal with issues of inequalities and iniquities much more competently and effectively. “Technology is the greatest social leveler, second only to death,” said Sam Pitroda, the telecommunications wizard and technocrat. The founding Commissioner of the United Nations Broadband Commission for Digital Development and Chairman of the International Telecommunication Union’s m-Powering Development Board, Pitroda actually embodies the truth of his own statement: Born as the son of a carpenter, Pitroda rose to become one of the world’s leading campaigners to bridge the digital divide across the globe.
The Emirates Identity Authority is currently engaged in a multifaceted effort to actualise financial inclusion in the UAE. We believe that the Emirates ID card can serve as a powerful instrument of social inclusion to bring the non-banked sector of the UAE population into the country’s dynamic financial mainstream. A secure ID card that can facilitate financial transactions is now in the hands of every legal resident in the UAE. The ID card can be used in conjunction with the secure digital identity credentials for online ID authentication. It should also enable the e-dirham to be placed in the ID card. In short, the ID card can work as a pre-paid card in diverse transactions. Let me explain how.
There are several segments in our society that are unbanked or under-banked. As per some statistics, 60 per cent of people in the UAE do not have bank accounts. Only 18 per cent of the population in the entire Middle East and North Africa were using financial services in 2011.
Blue-collar workers, students and unemployed women are all examples of this category of people who are excluded from the formal financial sectors. In sheer numbers, they constitute a substantial chunk of our population. The cumulative cash transactions that they effect are no less than billions of dirhams every month. But as low-income individuals, they are of no interest to the banking and financial sectors. Can we continue to deny them access to the financial mainstream just because the banks and financial institutions refuse to include them?
We cannot and we must not. Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in 2003 that the great challenge before us was to address the constraints that excluded people from full participation in the financial sector. “Together, we can and must build inclusive financial sectors that help people improve their lives,” he exhorted.
Forget about the altruistic part of what we are discussing. The macro-economic advantages of channeling digitally the billions of dirhams that the unbanked segments collectively transact are enough to conclude that it is high time we took financial inclusion seriously.
Our plans to link the Emirates ID cards to the Wages Protection System (WPS) emerged out of comprehensive deliberations on all these diverse aspects of the situation. We hope we will begin to link the WPS system with the national ID cards by the month of October this year. Similarly, a scenario where a housewife or a student uses her ID card for all day-to-day financial transactions without having to go through the procedural labyrinths of the banking system will revolutionise our societal infrastructure. Such a scenario will instill more dynamism into the national economy as well because the total volume of transactions effected by these sections cumulatively will be humungous, although their personal incomes remain negligible in individual terms.
An inevitable question that comes up in response to what I said above is how soon all these will materialise. The answer is simple and straight: We have been investing in setting up a world-class infrastructure for making the national ID card the centerpiece of the life of every citizen and legal resident in this country, facilitating all aspects of her life. The ball is now in the court of the service providers. Discussions with financial institutions and banks have so far been encouraging. I hope we will begin to enjoy the fruits of the new transformations within the next two years if we proceed apace without any glitches. The role of a conscious general public in bringing about change is equally significant.
(Dr. Ali Mohamed Al Khouri is Director General of the Emirates Identity Authority. He has several books and more than 70 research papers to his credit. He is a Special Advisor to the European Union for Single Electronic Identification and Authentication Project in Europe (STORK 2.0) and an Advisory Observer for Secure Identity Alliance in Europe)
