*President Bola Ahmed Tinubu directs the National Identity Management Commission to register all eligible Nigerians towards establishing a comprehensive national identity system to support effective governance, planning, and essential service delivery in both public and private sectors of the economy
Gbenga Kayode | ConsumerConnect
In line with the Federal Government’s avowed plan to create a comprehensive “foundational identity credential” for accessing essential public services, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to enrol all eligible Nigerians by December this year.
ConsumerConnect reports the NIMC Act 2026 further reinforces the “One Person, One Identity” policy by making the National Identification Number (NIN) the basic identity requirement for accessing both public and essential private services in the economy.
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The government has enumerated such essential services to include banking, passport applications, tax administration, pensions, land transactions, and consumer credit.
Tinubu directed the Commission to ensure that every Nigerian is enrolled in the national identity database before the end of 2026.
Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, Director-General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NIMC, confirmed the Presidential directive while featuring in Channels TV programme aired Sunday, July 12, 2026, and monitored in Lagos.
Coker-Odusote noted the move is part of the Federal Government’s efforts at establishing a comprehensive national identity system capable of supporting effective governance, planning, and service delivery.
It is recalled that Tinubu signed recently signed the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Act 2026 into law, repealing the 2007 legislation.
She stated: “The President has given us till the end of this year to make sure that we capture every single Nigerian.”
The Director-General also explained that NIMC is working with partners under the World Bank-supported Identification for Development (ID4D) project to accelerate enrolment 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,” Coker-Odusote said.
She equally emphasised that the National Identification Number (NIN) remains a unique identifier, ensuring that every individual is registered only once.
The NIMC Chief noted: “That’s why it’s called a unique identifier, so that you’re only enrolled once.”
Ensuring accurate population data
Against the backdrop of seemingly endless projections since 2006 Census, Engr. Coker-Odusote said Nigeria’s actual population had remained uncertain for decades with estimates ranging from 200 million to 250 million, making a comprehensive identity database essential for national planning.
She explained: “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.”
The Director-General asserted: “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.”
In regard to growing concerns about duplicate identities by registering in different locations or under different names, Engr. Coker-Odusote said the Commission’s biometric verification system prevents such occurrences.
While the previous system could accept duplicate enrolments before detecting them later, she assured that the current process automatically identifies and invalidates multiple registrations in Nigeria.
Coker-Odusote noted: “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.”
Essence of biometric verification, by Engr. Coker-Odusote
The Chief Executive of NIMC explained the biometric verification includes fingerprints and facial recognition.
According to her, these make it virtually impossible for a person to maintain multiple identities in the emerging Nigeria Digital Economy.
She averred: “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.”
Coker-Odusote stated: “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.”
Core objectives of NIMC Act 2026
The Federal Government said the the NIMC Act 2026 reinforced the “One Person, One Identity” policy by making the NIN the country’s foundational identity credential for accessing government and essential private services in the West African country.
The NIMC Act now introduces stiffer penalties for identity theft, multiple registrations, and unauthorised access to personal identity data.
It also m strengthening data privacy protections and granting NIMC wider powers to investigate identity-related offences.