Nigeria must issue 59M digital IDs in 18 months to meet World Bank target

Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) must make sure it issues at least 59 million National Identification Numbers (NINs) by December 31, 2026.

This is an objective the ID authority is pursuing in line with revised terms of the Nigeria Identity for Development Project (Nigeria ID4D).

It is an initiative funded by the World Bank, alongside the French Development Agency and the European Investment Bank to the tune of around $430 million.

The ID4D project was revised last year following Nigeria’s failure to meet a number of targets related to it.

The project rejig was tied to certain conditions including reforms which the Nigerian government agreed to implement. These, among other things, included increasing the digital ID database capacity to accommodate 250 million entries, increasing the number of digital IDs to be issued to 180 million, and introducing some legislative changes like revising the NIMC Act of 2007. Recently, the NIMC Director General, Abisoye Coker Odusote, said the authority plans to reach 95 percent of Nigerians with the NIN by December 2025.

With the new ID issuance target, the NIMC must be sure to issue at least 3.3 million NINs every month between now and the new project deadline which is due to elapse in the next year and a half, TechCabal reports.

This figure, the outlet says, is far above the monthly average of around 1.08 million NINs issued per month at the moment. This would mean accelerating speed and reaching more people in more communities.

As of June, the ID authority reported that 121 million NINs had been issued, with about 1.5 million of them issued to Nigerans living abroad. With the upgrade of the platform for issuing NINs to citizens in the diaspora, it is expected that the figures will go up.

Locally, the NIMC says it has been multiplying efforts to drive NIN adoption by increasing use cases of the ID. As part of the efforts, the agency has also upgraded its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), expanded enrollment centres, and revalidated licensing agreements with front-end partners who are helping in registering citizens.

Lately, the NIMC has also been empowering youth service corps members in different states to assist in NIN enrollment across the federation. Its partnerships with federal agencies such as the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and the Independent National Election Commission (INEC), as well as with the media, is also helping to push ahead NIN issuance efforts.

The NIMC is encouraging Nigerians to register for the NIN as it enables seamless access to a wide range of public and private sector services in education, health, and finance, among others.

Article Topics

biometric enrollment  |  digital identity  |  identity management  |  legal identity  |  national ID  |  National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)  |  National Identity Number (NIN)  |  SDG 16.9  |  World Bank