Nigeria's president has formally launched a national electronic identity card, which all Nigerians will have to have by 2019 if they want to vote.
Goodluck Jonathan received the first biometric card which can also be used to make electronic payments.
The new cards show a person's photograph, name, age and unique ID number and 10 fingerprints and an iris are scanned during enrolment.
These details are intended to ensure that there are no duplicates on the system.
MasterCard is providing the prepaid payment element and it hopes millions of Nigerians without bank accounts will now gain access to financial services.
An attempt to introduce national ID cards in Nigeria 10 years ago failed.
MasterCard said combining an identity card with a payment card for those aged 16 and over was a significant move.
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