TINUBU ORDERS NIMC TO ENROL ALL NIGERIANS IN IDENTITY DATABASE BY END OF 2026
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By ‘Sefiu Ajape
President Bola Tinubu has directed the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to enrol every Nigerian into the national identity database before the end of 2026, the commission’s Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, has said.
Coker-Odusote disclosed this during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, saying the directive forms part of the Federal Government’s efforts to establish a comprehensive national identity system to improve governance, planning, and service delivery.
“The President has given us till the end of this year to make sure that we capture every single Nigerian,” she said.
She explained that NIMC is collaborating with partners under the World Bank-supported Identification for Development (ID4D) project to speed up enrolment across the country.
“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,” she said.
According to the NIMC boss, the National Identification Number (NIN) functions as a unique identifier, ensuring that each individual is registered only once.
“That’s why it’s called a unique identifier, so that you’re only enrolled once,” she added.
Coker-Odusote said the exercise would also help Nigeria establish its actual population figure, noting that current estimates vary between 200 million and 250 million people.
“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 said.
Multiple registrations
Addressing concerns over multiple registrations, Coker-Odusote said NIMC’s biometric verification system prevents individuals from having more than one identity.
She explained that the previous system could only detect duplicate enrolments after records had been submitted, while the current system identifies and invalidates duplicates through biometric checks.
“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 said.
She added that biometric verification, including fingerprints and facial recognition, makes it difficult for individuals to maintain multiple identities.
“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.
The development comes weeks after President Tinubu signed the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Act 2026 into law on June 26, repealing the 2007 legislation.
The new law strengthens the “One Person, One Identity” policy by making the National Identification Number the country’s foundational identity credential for accessing government and essential private sector services, including banking, passport applications, tax administration, pensions, land transactions and consumer credit.
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