Findings have shown that the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has only been able to meet only 47.6 percent of the Federal Government’s monthly target of 2.5 million registrations in the first eight months of the year. The number of Nigerians with a National Identification Number (NIN) has also increased to 102.39 million in August despite the decrease in the number of enrollments. According to the NIMC data obtained and analyzed by news correspondents, enrollment has fallen by 35.14 percent year-on-year in the first eight months of the year.
Only 8.36 million people as of August 28, 2023 have enrolled for NIN so far this year from the 12.89 million people that had enrolled as of July 7, 2022. Enrollment on average is 1.19 million per month in the first eight months of 2023. The data indicated that the country is falling short of its 2.5 million registration target per month as set in the National Development Plan 2021-2025.
FG planned to enroll 100M Nigerians in three years.
In 2022, the commission was able to register 21.33 million people, with registration rising from 72.7 million as of January 1, 2022 to 94.03 million as of December 31, 2022. The average enrollment per month was 1.78 million per month for the year. In the plan, the Federal Government stated that it will enroll 100 million Nigerians in three years, with a goal of 2.5 million people monthly. It said the shortage of data was becoming a problem in the country and this needed to be addressed with a registration drive.
According to the government, the latest of these is the Nigerian Communications Commission linking SIM Registration Data to the National Identity Number Database. Commenting on the NIN registration for the month, the agency said, “NIMC enrollment figures as of August 28, 2023, currently stand at over 102.39 million unique records. The highest cumulative enrollment figure of over 11.17 million was recorded in Lagos State.” In 2022, the commission was able to register about 1.78 million people per month. This must have been a factor in the target of 2.5 million target per month for the current year.
Digital national IDs underway with World Bank partnership.
The total number of diasporan enrollment stood at 482,670, and the overall data revealed that men (58.15 million) have enrolled for NIN more than women (44.24 million). The top states that have the most people enrolled include Lagos with 11.17 million, Kano with 9.08 million, Kaduna with 6.35 million, Ogun with 4.32 million, and Oyo with 3.97 million. The bottom states include Bayelsa with 642,233, Ebonyi with 818,173, Ekiti with 1.01 million, Cross-River with 1.17 million, and Taraba with 1.48 million.
At a recent dinner in partnership with the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, affirmed the bank’s collaboration with NIMC to ensure the successful rollout and registration of digital national IDs in the country. Chaudhuri restated the commitment to provide at least 148 million people of working age with a digital national ID by the middle of 2024. He noted the potential of leveraging digital technologies to drive transformation.
World Bank to finance the project with $115m.
He said that the main mission of the bank in Nigeria is to eliminate poverty, make lives better and create jobs for all Nigerian youth. “One of the areas that we think have the greatest potential is the area of using digital technologies to transform. Now to do that, it begins with having this digital national ID,” the director said. Under the Digital Identification for Development project, the World Bank’s International Development Association credit is expected to finance Nigeria digital identity drive with $115 million. This is alongside co-financing of $100 million from the French Agency for Development and $215 million from the European Investment Bank, bringing the total amount to $430 million.
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