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, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, has said.
Speaking on Channels Television Sunday Politics, Coker-Odusote said the presidential directive is part of the Federal Government’s push to build a comprehensive national identity system to improve governance, planning and public service delivery.
“The President has given us till the end of this year to make sure that we capture every single Nigerian,” she said.
To meet the deadline, she said NIMC is working with private enrolment partners under the World Bank-supported Identification for Development (ID4D) project to expand registration across the country.
“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 explained.
Coker-Odusote said the National Identification Number (NIN) remains the country’s unique identity credential, ensuring that every citizen is enrolled only once.
She noted that the nationwide enrolment exercise would also help Nigeria determine its actual population, with current estimates ranging between 200 million and 250 million people.
“When we’re done enrolling, we will then know the actual numbers that we have. 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?” she said.
The NIMC boss said the commission has been directed to extend registration to grassroots communities to ensure no Nigerian is left out.
Addressing concerns about multiple registrations, Coker-Odusote said NIMC’s upgraded biometric verification system now detects duplicate enrolments in real time using fingerprints and facial recognition technology.
She explained that while the previous system only identified duplicate records after registration, the current platform prevents individuals from maintaining multiple identities by automatically invalidating duplicate records.
“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 both public and private institutions will now rely on NIMC’s database to verify identities instead of collecting separate biometric records.
According to her, telecommunications companies already validate customers’ identities through NIMC’s real-time biometric verification system during SIM registration.
The development follows President Tinubu’s signing of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Act 2026 into law, replacing the previous legislation.
The new law strengthens the Federal Government’s “One Person, One Identity” policy by making the NIN the country’s primary identity credential for accessing government and essential private services, including banking, passport applications, taxation, pensions, land transactions and consumer credit.
It also introduces tougher penalties for identity theft, multiple registrations and unauthorised access to personal identity data, while expanding NIMC’s powers to investigate identity-related offences and strengthening data privacy protections.
[7/13, 10:03 AM] rosewendy: Tinubu Orders NIMC to Enrol All Nigerians Before Year-End
