Registration for NIN achieves 47% target
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Only 47.6 per cent of monthly target of 2.5 million registrations for the National Identity Number (NIN) was achieved by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in the first eight months of 2023 (M8 2023).
However, the number of Nigerians with NIN increased to 102.39 million in August despite the lull in enrolment.
NIMC data shows enrolment fell 35.14 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in M8 2023 as only 8.36 million enrolled by August 28, down from 12.89 million by July 7, 2022.
NIN enrolment on average was 1.19 million per month in M8 2023, falling short of the 2.5 million enrolment per month target set in the National Development Plan 2021-2025.
Enrolment rose from 72.7 million in January 2022 to 94.03 million in December 2022 – with an average 1.78 million per month.
The federal government anticipated to enrol 100 million Nigerians in three years or 2.5 million monthly, as part of solutions to the lack of national data.
“The latest of these [efforts] is the Nigerian Communications Commission [NCC] linking SIM Registration Data to the National Identity Number Database,” the government said.
“NIMC plans to register an additional 100 million people in three years and has embarked on a massive registration drive. The plan is to enroll 2.5 million people monthly for the next three years.”
NIMC disclosed its “enrolment figures as of August 28, 2023 currently stand at over 102.39 million unique records. The highest cumulative enrolment figure of over 11.17 million was recorded in Lagos State.”
Breakdown of enrolment
Diaspora Nigerians – 482,670
Total male (home and abroad) – 58.15 million
Total female (home and abroad) – 44.24 million
Top five states
- Lagos – 11.17 million
- Kano – 9.08 million
- Kaduna – 6.35 million
- Ogun – 4.32 million
- Oyo – 3.97 million
Bottom five states
- Taraba – 1.48 million
- Cross River – 1.17 million
- Ekiti – 1.01 million
- Ebonyi – 818,173
- Bayelsa – 642,233
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Involvement of World Bank
Shubham Chaudhuri, World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, has reiterated the bank is collaborating with the NIMC to ensure a successful rollout and registration of digital national IDs in the country, per The PUNCH.
He cited the need to provide at least 148 million people of working age with a digital national ID by the middle of 2024 to leverage digital technologies for social and economic transformation.
“Our main mission here in Nigeria is to eliminate poverty, make lives better create jobs, for all Nigerian youths. 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,” Chaudhuri said.
“So, one of the main partnerships we have is working with NIMC to ensure the rollout of the registration so that all 213/220 million Nigerians have a digital national ID, beginning of course with all people of working age and I think the target for that is at least 148 million people by the middle of next year.”
A World Bank’s International Development Association credit is expected to fund Nigeria’s digital identity drive with $115 million, with co-financing of $100 million from the French Agency for Development, and $215 million from the European Investment Bank – bringing the total to $430 million.
However, only $35.6 million has reportedly been disbursed as of April 2023.