President Bola Tinubu has mandated the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to ensure all citizens are captured in the national identity database by the end of 2026.
Abisoye Coker-Odusote, the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of NIMC, shared this update during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics. She noted that the presidential directive aligns with the Federal Government’s push to build a robust national identity framework aimed at improving governance, strategic planning, and the delivery of public services.
“The President has given us till the end of this year to make sure that we capture every single Nigerian,” she said.
To meet this deadline, the commission is accelerating its nationwide registration drive through collaboration with front-end partners under the World Bank-supported Identification for Development (ID4D) project.
“What we have done is we have partnered through the World Bank ID4D project with front-end partners. They are part of the digital identity ecosystem. These are private citizens that we’ve enabled and given jobs to enrol citizens on our behalf,” Coker-Odusote explained.
She emphasized the unique nature of the National Identification Number (NIN), noting that the system is built to prevent multiple registrations for a single person.
“That’s why it’s called a unique identifier, so that you’re only enrolled once,” the NIMC boss added.
Highlighting the importance of data in national planning, Coker-Odusote pointed out that Nigeria’s population estimates currently fluctuate between 200 million and 250 million, making an accurate database vital.
“It is estimated that we’re 200 million. When we’re done enrolling, we will then know the actual numbers that we have. Some estimates say 230 million, while a few people say 250 million.
“Your identity is basically the foundation for effective governance and service delivery.
How can you plan if you don’t know the total number of persons that you have? We have been mandated by Mr President to go down to the community levels to enrol every single Nigerian,” she stated.
Addressing worries regarding potential fraud or duplicate identities, Coker-Odusote reassured the public that advanced biometric systems have plugged those vulnerabilities.
While previous infrastructure flagged duplicates only after the data entered the system, the upgraded setup instantly detects and isolates attempts at multiple registrations.
“The legacy system had no way of verifying at the front end whether you had already been captured. Once the record comes into the system, it flags it as a duplicate or that the person already exists in the database.
“You would only have one identity generated for you. The other record goes into a deduplication bucket where it is invalidated,” she clarified.
She added that integrated facial recognition and fingerprint technologies make maintaining double identities virtually impossible.
“Absolutely. One of the things that this Act has done is to cement our role in capturing biometrics. Private and public sector organisations will no longer capture biometrics independently. They will validate identities through API integration with NIMC.
“The telcos are already doing that with us. If you need a SIM card, they capture your facial biometrics, which are matched against our database in real time to confirm that you are who you claim to be. We’re using biometric validation to tighten security around identity confirmation,” she said.
This aggressive enrollment drive follows the signing of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Act 2026 into law on June 26, which replaced the old 2007 legislation.
The updated law solidifies the government’s “One Person, One Identity” policy, positioning the NIN as the mandatory foundational credential for banking, passport applications, consumer credit, tax administration, land transactions, and pension access.
Furthermore, the new legal framework imposes stricter penalties for identity theft, unauthorized data access, and duplicate registrations, while giving NIMC enhanced authority to investigate identity crimes and protect data privacy.
