Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) said Tuesday it has enrolled more than 136 million Nigerians and legal residents into the National Identity Database, as a newly enacted law reshaping the country’s digital identity system takes effect.
NIMC Director-General Abisoye Coker-Odusote disclosed the figure during a courtesy visit to the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning in Abuja, part of the commission’s ongoing engagement with government agencies on implementing the NIMC Act 2026. President Bola Tinubu signed the legislation into law on June 26, repealing the 2007 NIMC Act and establishing the National Identification Number, or NIN, as the country’s foundational identity credential under a “one person, one identity” policy.
The updated enrollment figure marks an increase of more than 12 million registrations since October 2025, when the total stood at 123.9 million. Under the new law, NIMC has also been designated as the root certificate authority for Nigeria’s digital infrastructure, with expanded powers covering data protection, cybersecurity and digital credentials, including a planned general-purpose multipurpose identity card.
Budget and Economic Planning Minister Abubakar Bagudu called the Act a transformative milestone that would strengthen Nigeria’s identity ecosystem and support national planning, while urging closer coordination between federal, state and local governments to eliminate duplicate identity databases and build public trust in the system.
Despite the milestone, officials acknowledge tens of millions of Nigerians remain unregistered. With the country’s population estimated above 240 million, children, rural residents and other vulnerable groups still lack a NIN, which is increasingly required to access government services, financial products, telecoms registration, passports and social intervention programs.
