The 100-Naira Citizen: How Nigeria’s rushed biometric mandate left vulnerable defenseless against digital extortion by Remmy Nweke - WeekendDigits@ITREALMS

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Human toll of inverted timeline:
Far from the sleek, air-conditioned federal conference rooms of Abuja, 53-year-old market trader Comfort Alao found herself trapped in an algorithmic nightmare. It began when her mobile phone lines were abruptly deactivated under the federal government's strict, zero-compromise National Identification Number (NIN)-SIM linkage sweep. For Comfort, losing her line meant losing her livelihood; her micro-savings account, mobile banking, and contact with wholesale suppliers vanished overnight.

Desperate to restore her economic lifeline, she spent two days navigating a chaotic, crowded third-party front-end enrollment center in Lagos. There, she surrendered her fingerprints, high-resolution facial biometrics, and home address to an unvetted private contractor using an unencrypted Android device.