The mandatory and accelerated enrolment for the National Identification Number (NIN), in the last five years, was Nigeria’s most decisive step towards building a foundational digital public infrastructure (DPI). With the number of unique NINs rising from 40 million to roughly 127 million, the country has made substantial progress in establishing the critical digital identity pillar. Yet, there are questions on how this foundational digital ID has translated to a robust and inclusive digital economy, ADEYEMI ADEPETUN writes.
On December 14, 2020, the former Minister of Communications and Technology, Prof. Isa Pantami, met with key industry stakeholders in Abuja, where he outlined the ministry’s plan for a digital economy on a centralised identity management.
Two days later, Pantami ordered compulsory National Identification Number (NIN) enrolment through the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) across the country, directing all network operators to require subscribers to provide valid NINs to update their Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards.
From the onset, the exercise has been fraught with challenges, despite some progressive leaps. The compulsory enrolment did not sit well with Nigerians, largely because it came during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria, like the rest of the world, was grappling with rising infections and deaths. According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), about 3,155 people died from the virus, yet citizens were compelled to crowd enrolment centres, undermining social-distancing protocols. This cast a shadow over the identity initiative.
Between 2020 and 2025, Nigeria made significant strides in the pursuit of digitalisation, catalysed by the aggressive expansion and mandatory linkage of the NIN. The strategic push, anchored in the government’s National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) 2020–2030, has positioned the NIN as the foundational layer of the burgeoning digital public infrastructure (DPI).
NIN as a DPI pillar
BEYOND the fact that Pantami linked identity management to tackling the spate of insecurity in the country at that time, which has even escalated now, the initiative was positioned as the bedrock for building Nigeria’s DPI, a system of interoperable digital tools intended to transform governance, service delivery and economic inclusion. The results are mixed, showing significant progress in ID coverage but lingering challenges in translating that coverage into seamless, inclusive, and high-value digital services for all citizens.
Progress has been substantial as NIN issuance rose from 14 million in 2000 to 28 million in 2015, and increased to 114 million in 2024 and now 127 million. Of the 127 million, NIMC has issued 69.7 million (56.25 per cent) of the NINs to men, while women got 54.2 million (43.7 per cent). Checks further revealed that in the last five years to November 2025, about 83 million NINs have been issued by the NIMC.
Further analysis of enrolment data from the commission showed that Lagos State leads the top 10 states with the highest issued NINs at 13.1 million, where 7.14 million have been given to men and 5.9 million to women. Kano ranked second with 11.5 million NINs (4.9 million to females and 6.6 million to males). Kaduna is third with 7.3 million NINs; Ogun, 5.12 million; Oyo, 4.7 million; Katsina, 4.21 million; Abuja, 4 million; Rivers, 3.6 million; Delta, 3.37 million; and Bauchi, 3.22 million, respectively.
The bottom 10, which are states with the fewest issued NINs, are Kwara, 2.1 million; Imo, 2.1 million; Yobe, 2.09 million; Enugu, 2.01 million; Kogi, 1.95 million; Taraba, 1.8 million; Cross River, 1.42 million; Ekiti, 1.16 million; Ebonyi, 1.03 million and Bayelsa, 803,874.
Diaspora enrolment data showed that 1.53 million NINs have been issued, with the larger chunk going to men (953,952) and women (584,630).
Infrastructure gaps leave millions unregistered
Enrolment efforts have faced hurdles. The World Bank put Nigeria’s population at about 220 million. As it is, it means over 100 million Nigerians still lack identity, a NIN to be precise, with remote and rural populations disproportionately affected.
The enrolment process often requires Internet access and proximity to registration centres, which is a significant barrier in areas with inadequate broadband coverage. Broadband penetration is currently at 49.8 per cent, about 20.2 per cent away from the 70 per cent target expected to be met by the end of 2025. The Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) said some 23 million Nigerians in about 105 communities are either unserved or underserved. The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, confirmed this, stressing that Project Bridge is expected to improve access and connectivity, especially in the remotest parts of the country.
Residents in rural communities continue to feel the impact. Johnson Aralu, an indigene of Aiyetoro, a suburb of Ondo State, speaking with The Guardian, lamented the lack of connectivity in the locality. He claimed that due to network instability, development has refused to come to the area, which has affected the progress of the community.
Speaking on the challenge of NIN registration in the suburb, Aralu said, “Apart from the fact that no enrolment centre in some parts of Aiyetoro, which subsequently forced people to go to Ese Odo to look for registration points, connectivity to the NIMC server at the point of registration is a huge task. Some people have had to frequent enrolment centres five to six times to get registered. I know of people who have jettisoned registration because of a lack of connectivity. They got frustrated by the entire process.
“There is also huge extortion. For example, a family friend was to register his 15-year-old son to acquire the NIN because he would need it to register for his West African Examination Council (WAEC) exam in 2026. He was directed to a private enrolment vendor under the NIMC’s Front-End Partners (FEP) programme in Ese Odo. To his surprise, he was asked to pay N6, 500 for the enrolment. After a back-and-forth argument, he ended up paying N5000. I thought they said it was free!”
Speaking with The Guardian from New York, USA, National Security Analyst, Dennis Amachre said the concentration of NIN enrolment in urban centres has created a significant digital identity gap, excluding a massive portion of the rural population from the full benefits of the digital economy and public services.
Amachree said this rural divide is fundamentally rooted in infrastructural and logistical hurdles, including limited physical enrolment centres, poor Internet/power connectivity, and high equipment maintenance costs.
“Further, many elderly or deeply rural citizens lack the required ‘feeder documents’ (like birth certificates or utility bills), creating an immediate barrier to registration and hindering the goal of universal digital identity,” he stated.
Harmonisation vs slow institutional integration
WHILE the challenge of connectivity remains, the NIN is slowly becoming the primary identifier for numerous government and private services, fulfilling its role as a key DPI component. It’s mandatory for obtaining a passport, driver’s license, voter’s card, accessing student loans (like NELFUND), corporate business registration, and most notably, telecommunications services. This integration is designed to foster a whole-of-government approach and reduce service delivery friction. However, harmonisation across government agencies remains slow.
The Deputy Director/Head, Strategy and Programme Officer, NIMC, Alvan Ikoku, confirmed this during a session with the 2025 Fellows of the DPI/DPG journalism fellowship programme, organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in Abuja. He said there has been tremendous progress in terms of enrolment, but the absence of strong interagency collaboration has been a challenge, slowing full harmonisation.
Ikoku said some of these institutions’ internal constitutions need to be amended to enable and fast-track harmonisation, “and that is one thing that has slowed the process, but I will say work is seriously ongoing to ensure integration and harmonisation.”
He added that data aggregation and harmonisation, which will include NIN enrolment data, voters’ register, drivers’ licence, SIM registries, passports and BVN databases, would lead to the establishment of a comprehensive National Identity Database.
Little or no impact on security
The Federal Government positioned the NIN and its integration as central in curbing the insecurity menace. But five years later, insecurity has continued with regular incidents of attacks, kidnappings reported nationwide. The spate of insecurity has led to loss of lives and hundreds of millions of naira paid as ransom to kidnappers without a trace, despite the NIN-SIM database.
The former minister in January 2024, in one of his posts on X, had decried situations where security operatives are not deploying the NIN-SIM database to rescue victims.
“NIN-SIM policy has been working. However, the relevant institutions fighting criminality are to be requested to ensure they utilise it effectively when a crime is committed. Lack of utilising it is the main problem, not the policy. While in office, I know three instances where the policy was utilised, and it led to the success of their operations,” Pantami stated.
He added that “On the lack of utilisation, I am more worried than anyone, as my life was threatened by criminals for reintroducing it, including on BBC Hausa & and national dailies, I resisted and ensured its implementation. If it is not being utilised by the relevant institutions in charge of securing lives and property, then I am more frustrated than any person, as I sacrificed my life and ignored all the threats to life. This is just a point out of 100 on the policy.”
The former minister’s outburst then was in the wake of the abduction of six girls in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, in Abuja, where the kidnappers demanded N60 million as ransom.
On this, Amachree, a former director with the Department of State Services (DSS), said the greatest obstacle to the NIN’s effectiveness in solving issues, particularly in security and governance, is the poor and inconsistent utilisation of the collected data by relevant agencies.
He said while mass enrolment (data collection) has largely succeeded, the crucial subsequent step of effectively leveraging this unique digital identity (data application) remains severely underdeveloped.
He submitted: “The central NIMC database lacks seamless, real-time API access for critical agencies like the Police and DSS, further compounded by capacity gaps and the persistence of data silos across government institutions, preventing the realisation of a unified ‘single digital identity.”
Between digital fraud and financial inclusion
The integration of NIN with financial services ought to lay the groundwork for enhanced financial inclusion and targeted social welfare programmes. A verifiable digital identity should simplify Know-Your-Customer (KYC) processes, reduce fraud and lower the cost of delivering services, including credit access, to the millions of formally unbanked Nigerians.
Narrating his experience with The Guardian, Enugu based Emeka Ejiofor lost N620,000 earlier this year after hackers gained access to his mobile wallet through a phishing scheme.
“I had just started trusting digital payments to avoid carrying cash around. Now, I don’t know if I’ll ever use my phone for transactions again,” he lamented.
Scenarios such as the above are gradually becoming the order of the day and fast eroding trust in digital financial platforms.
Nigerian banks lost N3.3 billion to fraud in the first quarter of 2025, a 137 per cent increase from N1.39 billion in the previous quarter, according to the Financial Institutions Training Centre.
Losses by payment instrument revealed that “Card-related fraud rose by 306.2 per cent, from N3.5 billion in Q4 to N14.3 billion in Q1 2025. Cash-related fraud increased by 301.2 per cent, climbing from N1.7 billion to N6.8 billion. Forged cheque losses rose by 196.8 per cent, from N338.1 million to N1.1 billion.”
This report is produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.
Shifts in fraud across channels were also highlighted. “Fraud via computer and web channels dropped by 25.6 per cent, from 9,890 to 7,361 cases. Mobile app fraud decreased by nearly 48 per cent, from 5,515 to 2,875 cases.
“Point of sale fraud fell by 25.9 per cent, from 2,103 to 1,559 cases, while fraud through bank branches decreased from 554 to 375 cases. ATM-related cases rose slightly from 166 to 177,” the report said.
NIMC insists NIN is making an impact
Head of Corporate Communications, NIMC, Dr Kayode Adegoke, speaking with The Guardian, said the security support of the NIN has created a verifiable audit trail and makes it significantly harder for criminals and terrorists to operate anonymously using mobile communications or bank accounts. He emphasised that security agencies can trace activities to a specific, verified identity through the NIN.
While not stating specific examples, Adegoke said the NIN linkage has been credited by security officials as a tool in tracking kidnappers, who make ransom demands via phone, saying it increases the risk for criminals using registered SIM cards.
According to him, in the financial and public sectors, using a biometric-backed NIN reduces impersonation and document forgery.
On challenges, the NIMC spokesperson said, just like every other system or government policy, the NIN enrolment drive has been hampered significantly by financial constraints. He said the support of President Tinubu has witnessed a systems overhaul and eased the burden of financial challenge, hitherto experienced.
According to him, recently, the DG/CEO, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, purchased over 2500 new enrolment devices to drive NIN inclusion. He said over a hundred enrolment centres were rehabilitated to ensure a conducive working environment.
He said the NIMC has also upgraded the National Identity Database to provide a secure and efficient identity management system. The Commission has also harmonised with over 250 Federal Government MDAs and State Government agencies to drive verification and authentication services.
This report is produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.
