Nigeria integrates national student IDs, digital identity system

Millions of Nigerian student records are being integrated with the country’s national digital ID, in a move that the federal government hopes will both improve planning and boost registration figures.

Nigeria’s Ministry of Education and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) collaborated to integrate the Learner’s Identification Number (LIN) of 80 million students with the National Identification Number (NIN) registry via the digital Nigeria Education Management Information System (NEMIS).

The LIN is a unique 16-digit number assigned to each student in Nigeria’s education system that began rolling out in April with 1.9 million IDs issued. It is associated with demographic and educational data.

The integration provides verified education data to the government to support planning and resource allocation, according to an announcement on X.

Nigeria is in the midst of a series of reforms to its digital identity system for stronger governance, improved public service delivery and more trusted credentials under and in alignment with the NIMC Act, 2026. The reforms include the ID authority taking responsibility of the country’s PKI system, and a planned integration with the National Health Insurance program.

NIMC Director General Engr. Bisoye Coker-Odusote says more than 120 million Nigerians were enrolled in the National Identity Database as of the July 10 statement. The DG updated the figure the same week to 136 million registrations, and NIMC is running a registration campaign with the goal of signing up 180 million people by the end of 2026.

Since the LIN system registers students through the education system, the integration provides a path for Nigeria’s schools to dramatically boost NIN registrations.

Article Topics

digital ID  |  national ID  |  National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)  |  National Identity Number (NIN)  |  Nigeria  |  student ID