President Bola Tinubu signing the NIMC Bill into law
President Bola Tinubu has directed the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to enrol every Nigerian in the national identity database before the end of 2026, according to the agency’s Director-General, Abisoye Coker-Odusote.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Coker-Odusote said the directive is aimed at building a reliable 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.
She explained that NIMC is partnering with enrolment agents through the World Bank-supported Identification for Development (ID4D) project to speed up registration 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 explained.
Coker-Odusote said the National Identification Number (NIN) remains a unique identity that allows every Nigerian to be registered only once, adding, “That’s why it’s called a unique identifier, so that you’re only enrolled once.”
She noted that Nigeria’s actual population is still uncertain, with estimates ranging from 200 million to 250 million, making nationwide enrolment important for accurate national planning.
“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,” she said, adding, “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.”
The NIMC boss also assured Nigerians that the commission’s biometric verification system prevents multiple registrations by detecting and invalidating duplicate records through fingerprint and facial recognition technology.
She added that the recently signed NIMC Act 2026 strengthens the “One Person, One Identity” policy, makes the NIN the primary identity credential for key public and private services, and imposes tougher penalties for identity fraud and unauthorised access to personal data.
