Nigeria on track with 70% NIN target-Report

By Motolani Oseni

A new report has revealed that Nigeria, through the Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is making progress, towards achieving 70 per cent NIN target by the end of 2024.

Recall that the Nigeria Identity for National Development (ID4D) initiative, which commenced in 2019, is being financed through an International Development Association (IDA) credit of $115 million and co-financing of $100 million from the French Agency for Development and $215 million from the European Investment Bank.

According to the World Bank, which facilitated the loans and monitored the project, as of April 30, 2023, a total of $35.6 million had been disbursed for the implementation of the project.

The target is for Nigeria to increase the number of persons with a National Identity Number (NIN), issued by a robust and inclusive foundational Identification (ID) system, that facilitates their access to services.

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As of December 2023, 104.16 million Nigerians had received NINs, thereby achieving 70 per cent of the target, according to NIMC figures. By June 2024, NIMC is scheduled to have provided 148 million Nigerians with their NIN under the scheme.

The World Bank, in its latest implementation report on the project published on March 29, 2024, said NIMC is making satisfactory progress.

The World Bank, while highlighting some of the milestones of the projects in its latest implementation report on the project published on March 29, 2024, said NIMC is making satisfactory progress.

According to the World Bank, NIMC has updated its Android enrollment software which will shorten the time of enrolment, adding that, “Updates include the reduction of the enrolment fields to 10 minimal fields, and the introduction of a two-factor authentication for enrolment officers amongst other features of the upgrade are completed.

“In addition to shortening the enrollment time, the project has established relationships with humanitarian and civil societies to ensure the inclusive capture of women. Enrollment numbers reached ~45 million from ~15 million at the onset of the project, which is 59.4 per cent of the targeted female enrollment.

“Features of the completed upgrade include a child enrolment use case and school-based enrolment campaigns, which were tested during the test phase enrolments. The total child enrollment reached 16 million from almost nothing at the onset of the project, which is 31.1 per cent of the targeted child enrollment,” it pointed out.

Despite recent worries about illegal access to the NIN database, the report showed that significant updates have been made to the various NIMC system components, including new front-end software enrollment, middleware solutions, important life-cycle modules, and many more. It claimed that all of these had improved built-in data security and improved protections.

“On the other hand, the system does not currently allow the real-time NIN generation. Efforts are underway to improve the efficiency of the systems which will reduce the time between NIN application and NIN generation. NIMC is working on updating the back-end solutions to enable this. Specifically, the ABIS and middleware vendors, IDEMIA and Nadra,” it said.