The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has enrolled more than 137 million Nigerians into the National Identification Number (NIN) database as President Bola Tinubu directed the commission to ensure every Nigerian is registered before the end of 2026.
The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of NIMC, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, disclosed this on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, where she spoke on the newly signed NIMC Act and its implications for Nigeria’s digital identity ecosystem.
According to her, 137,371,080 Nigerians had been enrolled in the NIN database as of Sunday evening, although millions remain unregistered based on estimates of the country’s population.
“As of this evening, we have enrolled 137,371,080 Nigerians,” she said.
“We still have a shortage because Nigeria’s population is estimated at about 200 million, while some estimates put it at 230 million or even 250 million. When we finish enrolling everyone, we’ll know the actual figure.”
Coker-Odusote said President Tinubu had directed the commission to complete the nationwide enrolment exercise before the end of 2026.
“The President has given us until the end of this year to make sure that we capture every single Nigerian,” she said.
To achieve the target, she said NIMC had expanded enrolment beyond local government offices to wards and communities through partnerships under the World Bank-supported Identification for Development (ID4D) project.
She explained that the commission had engaged private sector front-end partners to bring registration services closer to citizens across the country.
“We have partnered through the World Bank ID4D project with front-end partners. They are part of the digital identity ecosystem, and they are enrolling citizens on our behalf at the community level,” she said.
Coker-Odusote stressed that under the amended NIMC Act, obtaining a National Identification Number is now mandatory for every Nigerian, describing the NIN as the country’s foundational identity system.
“You must have the NIN,” she said.
“The beauty of the NIN is that it promotes accountability and transparency. It enables access to government services in areas such as taxation, travel, healthcare, education and social intervention programmes.”
She cited the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) as one of the agencies already relying on the NIN to verify beneficiaries.
“Every beneficiary of NELFUND must use their NIN. It acts much like a social security number and even goes beyond that because you need it to access government social services,” she added.
Speaking on the newly enacted NIMC Act, the NIMC boss said the law establishes the commission as Nigeria’s sole foundational identity authority and mandates the harmonisation of identity databases maintained by different government agencies.
“The new Act cements NIMC’s role as the foundational harmonised identity for Nigeria. It speaks to one identity for all Nigerians.
“It means duplicate databases will be harmonised and every database will be integrated.”
She said the legislation also strengthens provisions on cybersecurity and data protection, areas that were largely absent from the 2007 Act.
“The old law was outdated. Nineteen years is a long time considering how technology has evolved. Today we’re talking about digital public infrastructure, artificial intelligence and stronger cybersecurity.”
The previous Act had very limited provisions on data protection and cybersecurity, so the new law aligns with current realities and global best practices.”
Coker-Odusote dismissed claims that NIMC had suffered a data breach, insisting reports suggesting otherwise stemmed from the activities of fraudulent agents operating fake registration platforms.
“There has never been a data breach. What people experienced were activities of rogue agents who collected people’s information outside our authorised systems,” she said.
She urged Nigerians to use the NINAuth mobile application to securely manage their personal information and grant consent before sharing their data with service providers.
She added that NIMC’s biometric verification system prevents multiple registrations through real-time fingerprint and facial recognition, while prospective applicants can pre-enrol online before visiting any NIMC centre for biometric capture.
The commission currently operates about 1,200 enrolment centres across Nigeria and 950 centres in the diaspora.
