President Bola Tinubu has directed the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to register every Nigerian in the national identity database before the end of 2026.
The directive signals a major push to ensure every citizen has a National Identification Number (NIN).
The announcement was made by the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of NIMC, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics. Moreover, she explained that the directive is part of a wider effort to build a complete national identity system that supports governance, security, and economic development.
The move comes shortly after President Tinubu signed the new National Identity Management Commission Act 2026 into law. Meanwhile, the legislation strengthens the country’s “One Person, One Identity” policy and gives NIMC broader powers to manage identity registration and protect personal data.
According to Coker-Odusote, the President has made nationwide enrolment a priority.
“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 has partnered with organisations through the World Bank-supported Identification for Development (ID4D) project.
The partnership is designed 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.
Furthermore, the NIMC boss said the National Identification Number remains unique to every Nigerian.
She stressed that duplicate identities are not permitted under the current system.
“That’s why it’s called a unique identifier, so that you’re only enrolled once,” the NIMC DG added.
According to her, one of the biggest challenges facing Nigeria is the absence of an accurate population database.
Current estimates range between 200 million and 250 million people.
She noted that the nationwide registration exercise will help establish the country’s actual population.
“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.
In addition, Coker-Odusote addressed concerns about multiple registrations.
She explained that the new biometric verification system prevents individuals from obtaining more than one identity.
Fingerprints and facial recognition are now used to verify applicants in real time.
“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 also revealed that both public and private organisations will now rely on NIMC’s database to verify identities instead of collecting separate biometric records.
“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.
Meanwhile, the recently signed NIMC Act 2026 introduces tougher penalties for identity theft, multiple registrations, and illegal access to personal identity information.
The law also expands the use of the National Identification Number for banking, passport applications, tax services, pensions, land transactions, and consumer credit.
Government officials believe a complete identity database will improve planning, strengthen security, reduce fraud, and ensure public services reach the right people.
