The Federal Government has stepped up efforts to achieve universal digital identity enrolment through a strengthened partnership between the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), with a renewed push to register an estimated 100 million more Nigerians….
The Federal Government has stepped up efforts to achieve universal digital identity enrolment through a strengthened partnership between the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), with a renewed push to register an estimated 100 million more Nigerians.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, announced the initiative in Abuja on Wednesday while receiving the Director-General of NIMC, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, and her management team during a courtesy visit to present the provisions of the newly enacted NIMC Act 2026.
Idris described a comprehensive national identity system as critical to effective governance, national planning, financial inclusion and digital transformation, saying it is central to President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
He noted that more than 136 million Nigerians and legal residents had already been enrolled in the National Identity Database, describing the achievement as significant while stressing that millions more still need to be registered.
“The 136 million already captured is very significant, but we still have about 100 million Nigerians left, and they also ought to be captured. Every Nigerian deserves to be included in our national planning,” he said.
The minister urged NIMC to strengthen collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA), citing the agency’s presence in all 774 local government areas as vital to grassroots sensitisation and enrolment.
He also commended the commission for maintaining a secure identity ecosystem without any reported data breach and pledged to deploy all communication platforms under the Information Ministry, including the News Agency of Nigeria, to support public awareness campaigns.
NOA Director-General Lanre Issa-Onilu assured NIMC of the agency’s support in educating citizens, particularly those in rural and underserved communities, on the importance of obtaining a National Identification Number (NIN).
NIMC Director-General Abisoye Coker-Odusote said the NIMC Act 2026 modernises Nigeria’s identity management framework by introducing stronger data protection, cybersecurity and digital public infrastructure provisions.
She disclosed that the commission had begun a ward-by-ward enrolment exercise across Nigeria’s 8,809 political wards in line with President Tinubu’s directive to ensure that women, children, persons with disabilities, rural dwellers, refugees, legal residents and Nigerians in the diaspora are captured in the National Identity Database.
According to her, the commission is also working with security agencies and other institutions to tackle identity fraud, strengthen digital trust and support a secure digital economy.
NIMC’s Head of Corporate Communications, Kayode Adegoke, said the new law establishes the commission as Nigeria’s sole authority for digital identity management and provides the legal framework for Digital Public Infrastructure, Public Key Infrastructure and stronger data privacy protections.
He added that NIMC has integrated its systems with more than 250 Ministries, Departments and Agencies, introducing digital innovations that have improved service delivery and reduced enrolment time.
