The Federal Government has intensified its nationwide digital identity campaign as the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) begins a ward-by-ward enrolment drive to capture more Nigerians into the National Identity Database.
The initiative is part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to achieve universal identity coverage and ensure that citizens and legal residents can access government programmes, financial services and digital platforms.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja during a meeting with the NIMC Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Engr. (Dr.) Abisoye Coker-Odusote, and her management team, who presented the strategic implications of the newly enacted NIMC Act 2026.
Idris said a reliable national identity system was essential for effective governance, planning and digital transformation.
“Identity management is at the heart of the reform agenda of Mr. President, because if you are reforming, you have to know who you are reforming for. If you don’t know the number of people that you have and the demography and what they represent, how do you plan for them?” the Minister said.
He said more than 136 million Nigerians and legal residents had already been enrolled in the National Identity Database, describing the figure as significant progress while stressing the need to capture those still outside the system.
“The 136 million already captured is very significant, but we still have about 100 million Nigerians left, and they also ought to be captured. Every Nigerian deserves to be included in our national planning,” Idris said.
The Minister urged NIMC to strengthen its partnership with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to drive awareness and sensitisation at the grassroots, leveraging the agency’s presence across all 774 Local Government Areas.
“The National Orientation Agency is your best bet for reaching the grassroots. Please deepen your collaboration with NOA so that together we can ensure every Nigerian understands the importance of identity management,” he said.
He also assured the Commission that communication platforms under the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, including the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), would support public enlightenment efforts on digital identity.
Earlier, NOA Director-General, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, pledged the agency’s readiness to support the enrolment campaign through its grassroots structures.
“We know we’ve been working together, but I hope you will be coming forward so we can see how we can assist you, because we are present in those areas where you want to go and carry out public enlightenment and sensitisation,” Issa-Onilu said.
Coker-Odusote said NIMC had commenced a nationwide ward-by-ward enrolment campaign across Nigeria’s 8,809 political wards following President Tinubu’s directive to ensure that rural communities and vulnerable groups are not excluded from government interventions.
“The President gave us marching orders to commence the ward enrolment exercise because he wanted the people in the rural areas and at the community level not to be disenfranchised from any government intervention programme,” she said.
She added that the exercise would cover women, children, persons with disabilities, refugees, legal residents and Nigerians in the diaspora.
The NIMC boss said the Commission was also collaborating with security agencies and relevant institutions to combat identity fraud, strengthen digital trust and support a secure digital economy.
Meanwhile, NIMC Head of Corporate Communications, Dr. Kayode Adegoke, described the NIMC Act 2026 as a major reform that had repositioned the Commission as Nigeria’s foundational digital identity authority.
“NIMC has evolved from a database custodian to Nigeria’s foundational identity authority. NIMC is now the only authorised commission for digital identity management in Nigeria,” Adegoke said.
He added that the new law provides a framework for Digital Public Infrastructure, Public Key Infrastructure, stronger data protection measures and wider use of the National Identification Number across public and private sector services.
Adegoke also disclosed that NIMC had integrated with more than 250 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to improve service delivery and reduce enrolment time.
The meeting was attended by senior officials from the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, NOA and NIMC.