The National Identity Management Commission, NIMC has set its sights on enrolling every Nigerian into the national identity database, unveiling an ambitious grassroots-focused strategy at its 2025 Management Retreat with the theme: “Leading with Purpose: Digital Transformation in Identity Management.”
Addressing senior staff, territorial directors, regional and state coordinators during the high-level retreat, NIMC Director General and Chief Executive Officer, Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote emphasized that the national identity project has moved beyond administrative necessity to become a critical tool for inclusion, development and governance.
“This isn’t just about identity. It’s about inclusion,” said the DG. “We want to ensure that the unbanked, the poor, and the vulnerable have access to government interventions and the NIN is the gateway.”
With over 120 million unique NIN records already in the database, Coker-Odusote noted that the Commission aims to bridge remaining gaps by targeting underserved populations, particularly children and youth under 16.
She noted that a presidential directive has given new momentum to the Commission’s efforts, unlocking unprecedented inter-agency collaboration and high-level support.
The DG/CEO noted that as of 2025, NIMC operates over 1,200 offices nationwide, covering all 774 local government areas and with the launch of the Ward-Level Enrollment Initiative, more underserved communities will be reached through partnerships with private sector FEPs and the expansion of community-level operations.
“Mr. President has directed that we take enrollment closer to the people to prevent disenfranchisement,” the DG/CEO noted. “Transformation isn’t possible without the people, that’s why we’re investing in them, through training, tools, and a conducive work environment.”
Coker-Odusote said with 760 million NIN verifications to date and over 150 million monthly, the National Identity Number is now integral to accessing banking, healthcare, telecoms, education, passport issuance and social safety nets.
As NIMC looks to the future, the DG/CEO concluded with a confident outlook: “Nigeria is on the right path. We’re not just leading identity transformation locally, we’re setting the pace for Africa.”
Giving an overview, the Director of Information Technology and Identity Database, Lanre Yusuf, announced that NIMC will roll out a ward-level enrollment strategy targeting all 8,809 political wards in Nigeria.
This approach, according to Engr. Yusuf will focus on schools, health centres and local communities, not only enrolling students but also parents, patients and others in their immediate surroundings.
“With the deployment of over 35,000 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, we’re confident we can enroll between 95% to 100% of Nigerians within six months,” Yusuf stated.
Also speaking at the retreat, Head of the Strategy and Programme Office at NIMC, Dr. Alvan Ikoku said the success of NIMC’s transformation has been driven by internal synergy and system innovation.
He described 2024 as a watershed year, with various departments working collaboratively to harmonize and integrate national identity with over 100 MDAs.
“NIMC now hosts the largest citizen identity database in Africa, and we’re using it to power digital transformation, reduce identity fraud, and improve service delivery,” he said.
Dr. Ikoku noted that part of this integration includes the NINAuth app, a plug-and-play solution that enables secure identity verification using QR code scans, a feature now being adopted by several government and private agencies.
Backing these efforts is the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development, ID4D project, a World Bank-supported initiative. Project Coordinator of the ID4D PIU, Tito Ejenavi, outlined how the project is strengthening NIMC’s operational backbone.
“We’ve supported the upgrade of NIMS architecture, provided capacity building, settled backlogs for front-end partners (FEPs), and are now expanding biometric storage from 100 million to 250 million records,” Ejenavi said.
Ejenavi added that other improvements include middleware upgrades, backend integrations and improved authentication systems.