Get Guardian on GoogleNIMC claims some partners were settled recently
The World Bank has raised concerns over Nigeria’s ongoing national identification challenges, highlighting that millions of citizens remained outside the National Identification Number (NIN) system.
It noted that despite years of government efforts to expand enrolment, the process had been hampered by unpaid agents and logistical bottlenecks, leaving a significant portion of the population without access to formal identification.
The World Bank noted that nearly 59 million Nigerians had not been enrolled in the NIN database, a figure that underscores the scale of the problem.
The NIN is critical for accessing government services, financial inclusion, and digital identity verification, but the enrolment drive has stalled due to disputes over compensation for registration agents.
The World Bank revealed this in its October 2026 restructuring paper for Nigeria’s Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) project. It noted that agents, popularly known as Front-End Partners (FEP), hired by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) had not been paid since January 2026.
According to the bank, the unpaid fees are an operational issue that must be resolved to meet the target of 180 million NINs. As of September 30, 2026, about 121 million Nigerians had received NINs, leaving a shortfall of roughly 59 million.
Recall that the Director of NIMC’s Strategic Programme Office, Dr Alvan Ikoku, in a conversation with DPI Alumni last month, disclosed that NIMC had enrolled 142 million Nigerians into the database, but some 100 million had been issued with the NINs.
He, however, stressed that President Bola Tinubu had directed the Commission to push NIN coverage to 95 per cent of the population by December 2026,
Meeting the enrolment target, the World Bank said NIMC’s billing system must produce audited payment reports so partners can be paid on time.
“The billing system must generate audited FEP payment reports to enable timely NIN payments to FEPs, which have not been paid since January 2026,” the report stated.
Accordingly, resolving the payment issue is one of seven activities NIMC must address to sustain enrolment and reach the 180 million target.
Other priorities include launching the Learning Management System (LMS) to train and certify FEP enrolment agents, deploying 7,000 mobile devices procured under the project, and extending enrolment to schools and underserved communities.
The paper set October 31, 2026, as the deadline for making the LMS operational, and January 2027 for deploying the 7,000 devices with the enrolment module activated.
But speaking with The Guardian yesterday, a senior official of NIMC, on the condition of anonymity, said the Commission’s major task, as per payment, was to collate the FEPs’ invoices and get them across to the World Bank.
