The federal government has set a fixed operational deadline that requires the National Identity Management Commission and its partners to push Nigeria toward near-universal identity coverage by December 2026. The target, announced at the 2026 National Identity Day event in Abuja and conveyed through the president’s Chief of Staff, imposes a clear timetable for widening ward-level and mobile registration across the country.
Speaking through Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila, the president framed the move as the next phase of a rapid scale-up. "Today, NIN enrolment stands at about 142 million, a remarkable increase from the over 80 million Nigerians captured in the National Identity Database when we assumed office," he said. "The next target is clear: we must work towards 95 per cent coverage by December 2026." The administration says it will lean on intensified ward-to-ward drives, expanded mobile enrolment and licensed registration agents to hit the goal.
NIMC’s director-general, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, described recent operational gains that underpin the push. Enrolment has climbed from fewer than 100 million to more than 142 million, the commission says, after a programme that extended services into all 8,809 wards. That effort used National Youth Service Corps members as adult enrolment officers, and NIMC reports its Self-Service Notification Platform has processed nearly two million record modifications, cutting update times to 24 to 48 hours.
The president positioned the identity drive as foundational for digital public services, citing potential uses such as electronic health records and transport systems, while stressing limits. "We must do this while protecting the rights, privacy and dignity of our citizens. The digital state must never become a state without accountability," he said. Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo urged broader access, including for Nigerians abroad, and called for development of a trusted public key infrastructure to secure authentication.
The announcement also formalises private-sector and subnational roles: 173 private companies, 30 state governments and 14 public institutions already hold licences to participate in enrolment. That network creates both capacity and coordination challenges as the commission converts the current 142 million registered into near-universal coverage. Over the coming months NIMC and its licensed partners must scale ward-level and mobile operations, preserve citizens’ privacy and begin integrating the identity system into wider government services under a compressed timetable.
