President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria has asked the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to capitalize on the country’s new digital ID legal framework and cover up to 95 percent of the population with the National Identification Number (NIN) by the end of 2026.
Nigeria is implementing one of Africa’s biggest national digital ID projects, with NIN enrollment now reaching about 142 million, up from more than 80 million when Tinubu took office.
Tinubu gave the directive on September 16 during an event at State House in Abuja to mark this year’s International Identity Day. Speaking through his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, the Nigerian president praised the excellent work being undertaken by the NIMC in strengthening Nigeria’s digital identity ecosystem and urged the ID authority to accelerate NIN issuance through the grassroots enrollment drive it launched in February at ward level.
The president emphasized the importance of identity in helping achieve the country’s present and future strategic national development objectives. Gbajabiamila said it was important for every Nigerian to have a national identity to enable them to easily access services in the public and private sectors.
The implementation is supported by tripartite funding from the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, as well as the French Development Agency. In 2024, the project was revised with a new issuance target of 180 million digital IDs, alongside other obligations which the government consented to with the aim of making the project more beneficial for the Nigerian people.
The NIMC is bullish it will meet the target, but it agrees that this means accelerating efforts and expanding collaboration on the ground to meet the target. Following the adoption of the new legal framework, the NIMC Director General has also embarked on a tour, meeting and talking with stakeholders in and out of government to explore avenues for stronger support and collaboration.
Apart from issuance, Tinubu also emphasized the importance of data protection, privacy, and security, and the institutionalization of the NIN as the country’s foundational identity, and an important pillar in the ongoing digital transformation drive.
That push increasingly links biometric identity with cryptographic trust infrastructure. Under the NIMC Act 2026, the commission is designated as the Root Certification Authority for Nigeria’s national Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), putting responsibility for digital identity, authentication and electronic trust services under the same authority.
Tinubu said the government is also accelerating development of a sovereign PKI to support secure digital signatures, electronic documents, encrypted transactions and government communications.
As NIN increasingly expands, the NIMC has been pushing an agenda to move from mere issuance of identity to making it a practical tool to enable access to a wide range of services, and in a trusted manner, which was the focus of this year’s International Identity Day. There is also an extension of digital ID to different sectors in the country such as for students, farmers and cooperative societies.