The National Identity Management Commission has crossed a landmark threshold, enrolling over 136 million Nigerians and legal residents into the National Identity Database and bringing Nigeria closer than it has ever been to achieving full digital identity coverage for its entire population.
The milestone arrives alongside the enactment of the NIMC Act 2026, signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to replace legislation that had governed the Commission since 2007. Together, these developments mark a decisive turning point for Nigeria’s digital identity programme, reshaping how citizens access government services, engage with the formal economy, and establish their identity in an increasingly digital world.
The National Identity Management Commission was established to maintain the National Identity Database, issue the National Identification Number, and anchor Nigeria’s identity management system on a trusted, secure foundation. Its mandate cuts across virtually every Nigerian institution, from banking and taxation to social intervention and national security, making it one of the most consequential agencies in the country’s federal structure.
The numbers behind that mandate are compelling. Enrolment figures rose by over 12 million between October 2025 and July 2026 alone, climbing from 123.9 million to the current 136 million. Under the new NIMC Act 2026, the National Identification Number is now formally positioned as Nigeria’s primary identity under a “one person, one identity” policy. The Commission has also been established as the root certificate authority for the country’s national digital infrastructure, a designation that places it at the centre of Nigeria’s broader digital public architecture.
Leading this transformation is the Commission’s Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, appointed by President Tinubu in August 2023. A Computer Science graduate with an MBA in Information Technology Management and over eighteen years of cross-sector experience spanning telecommunications, oil and gas, finance, healthcare, and public administration across Nigeria and the United Kingdom, she came into the role with a clear understanding of what a digital identity institution should look like and the technical grounding to build it.
Under Coker-Odusote’s direction, the Commission adopted a five-point agenda that addressed the backlog of public distrust, slow enrolment, and identity fraud it had inherited. The focus was structural: fix the infrastructure, secure the data, rebuild public confidence, and then scale. The enrolment figures of today are the clearest evidence that the Commission has delivered on that agenda.
One of the most visible expressions of this approach is NIMC’s nationwide ward-level enrolment campaign, which Coker-Odusote launched following the passage of the NIMC Act 2026. The campaign spans all 8,809 political wards across Nigeria, taking NIN enrolment into communities far beyond the urban centres where most registration activity had previously been concentrated. It is among the most geographically ambitious rollouts in the Commission’s history, designed to ensure that no Nigerian is left out of the national identity system by virtue of where they live.
The Commission has also reactivated its Inspectorate, Compliance and Enforcement Unit, now empowered under the new Act to arrest and prosecute identity thieves, shut down illegal enrolment centres, and combat online fraud targeting the national identity database. The unit operates alongside security agencies and the Federal Ministry of Justice, and is anchored to the provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, building a robust enforcement architecture around the biometric data of over 136 million registered citizens.
Beyond enforcement, NIMC has moved deliberately to embed the NIN into the fabric of Nigeria’s governance and social systems. Coker-Odusote has personally led strategic engagements with the Federal Ministries of Budget and Economic Planning, Information, Humanitarian Affairs, and Industry, Trade and Investment, with discussions centred on deploying digital identity across social intervention programmes, economic planning, and trade facilitation. These are not ceremonial visits; they are working sessions directed at making the NIN the connective tissue between Nigerians and the services their government provides.
Those engagements have already begun to yield outcomes. The Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning has reaffirmed its commitment to leveraging the NIN for national development planning, while the Ministry of Information has aligned with the Commission on expanding public awareness of the new NIMC Act and its implications for citizens. The Commission’s inter-agency collaboration model is gradually becoming the template for how Nigeria’s federal institutions work together on digital transformation.
NIMC’s ambitions for the second half of 2026 are equally clear. Full implementation of the NIMC Act 2026 remains the primary focus, with the ward-level enrolment campaign continuing to push coverage into every corner of the country. The Commission is also working to deepen the integration of the NIN into financial services, healthcare, and education systems, building the case that a verified national identity is not just a government document but a gateway to economic participation.
As the Commission continues to execute on its mandate, the direction Coker-Odusote has set is one that treats identity not as a bureaucratic exercise but as infrastructure. “NIMC will collaborate with relevant stakeholders to leverage the NIN for economic planning and national development initiatives,” she has said. With 136 million enrolments recorded and a new legal framework in place, the Commission is now positioned to make good on that commitment at scale.
Samuel Agboola is a member of TheScript Newspapers
