Seven of ECOWAS’s fifteen member states have deployed the ECOWAS National Biometric Identity Card (ENBIC), with the bloc committing to mutual acceptance of the card at air, land and sea borders across all member states by December 2026.
The update came at a media sensitisation workshop held in Lagos on Thursday, organised by ECOWAS, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS). Officials at the event stressed that meeting the deadline will depend heavily on accurate public understanding of the card — placing responsibility partly on how Nigerian journalists report it.
The ENBIC replaces the handwritten ECOWAS Travel Certificate with a single machine-readable document, allowing immigration officers to verify a traveller’s identity electronically rather than manually checking paper credentials. The card costs N35,000 to acquire.Officials describe the ENBIC as the practical mechanism for delivering on the ECOWAS Free Movement Protocol, which grants citizens the legal right to live in any member state, alongside the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and Nigeria’s broader push to strengthen migration governance.
Speaking at the workshop, ECOWAS’s Director of Free Movement of Persons, Migration, and Tourism, Obinna Ajugwo, traced the card’s origins to its endorsement by ECOWAS Heads of State and Government, introduced to address identity-management gaps, irregular migration, and cross-border crime amid rising mobility across the bloc.
“The ENBIC is not just a card. It is a symbol of belonging,” Ajugwo said.
