Nigeria now has 142 million people in its National Identity Database. That number, confirmed by the National Identity Management Commission in September 2026, is not just a statistic. It represents the largest verified record of Nigerian citizens and residents that this country has ever maintained, and it is still growing.
NIMC was established to do something that sounds straightforward but has proven remarkably difficult: give every Nigerian a single, verifiable identity. The commission issues the National Identification Number and maintains the national identity database that sits behind every interaction a Nigerian has with the formal economy or public services.
For years, progress was slow. The legal framework had not been touched since 2007, and public confidence in the system was difficult to build without something tangible to point to. That changed significantly in the last two years.
The most consequential development of 2026 came on June 23, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the NIMC Act 2026 into law, replacing legislation that had governed the commission since 2007. The new Act positions the NIN as the primary identifier for all Nigerians under a one person, one identity policy. It also establishes NIMC as the root certificate authority for Nigeria’s national digital infrastructure and grants the commission the power to arrest and prosecute identity criminals in collaboration with security agencies and the Federal Ministry of Justice. Director-General Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, who was present at the signing, described it as a bold leap into the future, and the description was not an overstatement.
To enforce the new mandate, the commission reactivated its Inspectorate, Compliance and Enforcement Unit, which had been dormant for years. The unit is now operating actively, going after illegal enrolment centres and identity fraud that had been operating in the open without consequence.
On enrolment, NIMC has moved faster and further than at any point in its history. The ward-level campaign launched following the passage of the Act spans all 8,809 political wards in Nigeria, taking enrolment services into communities where the nearest commission office might be hours away. Outside the country, the commission has extended its reach to nearly 1,000 locations across approximately 100 countries, allowing Nigerians in the diaspora to access identity services without returning home. The commission has also processed close to two million record updates, reflecting growing public engagement beyond first-time enrolment.
Coker-Odusote has also worked to make the NIN genuinely useful across government. She has held direct engagements with the ministers of Budget and Economic Planning, Information, Humanitarian Affairs, and Industry, Trade and Investment, with each conversation focused on embedding the NIN into the services those ministries deliver. Conversations are also underway with the Bank of Industry and the Ministry of Women Affairs on using digital identity as a tool for economic access, particularly for underserved communities. The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, who received her on one of those visits, noted that the commission’s success would ultimately be measured by the tangible benefits it delivers to citizens.
The work is far from finished, but what NIMC has built in the last two years represents the most serious progress the commission has made since it was established. A new legal framework is in force, 142 million Nigerians are in the database, and the commission is no longer waiting for people to come to it. It is going to them.
Samuel Agboola is a member of the editorial team of TheScript Newspaper
