The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) recorded 634,603 NIN registrations in July. This represents the lowest enrollment and issuance of National Identification Numbers (NIN) since the start of the year.
This is an unusual deviation from the monthly average of 1 million enrollments since the beginning of the year. So far in 2023, May has witnessed the highest number of enrollments with over 1.3 million. The month of May also witnessed Nigeria hit the 100 million registration milestone, up from April’s total enrollment figure which stood at 98,708,656.
Since then, the country has recorded 1.6 million enrollments with the bulk of that figure coming from June. Currently, the total number of issued NIN as of July 25, 2023, stood at 101.64 million from 101 million recorded in June.
Other figures show that Lagos maintains its lead over all other states recording the highest number of enrolments so far in the country with 11.07 million Nigerians captured in the State. It is followed by Kano State, which recorded 9 million registered NIN.
What enrolment slowdown means
The enrolment slowdown in July may come as a huge blow to the NIMC in reaching the World Bank’s target under the Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) project. Because even with an average of 1 million enrolments monthly, Nigeria was not certain to meet the deadline which is now less than a year away.
For context, the ID4D is a project sponsored by the World Bank that aims to “increase the number of persons with a national identification (ID) number, issued by a robust and inclusive foundational ID system, that facilitates their access to services.” It’s expected to run from February 2020 to June 2024. By then, 148 million Nigerians are supposed to have a NIN.
The ID4D also sets extra targets for Nigeria to meet. From the 148 million enrollments, the World Bank expects 65 million registrants to be women. Furthermore, the NIN enrollment scheme should include children, specifically 50 million. Going by the current number provided by the NIMC, Nigeria has to catch up quickly.
The ID4D project is financed through an International Development Association (IDA) credit of US$115 million and a co-financing of US$100 million from the French Agency for Development and US$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.
Read also: Why Nigeria’s new Data Protection law may yet benefit its digital economy
More on the NIMC enrolment
Aside from Lagos and Kano, other states that made the top ten in terms of the number of enrolments include Kaduna with 6.3 million; Ogun with 4.3 million; Oyo with 3.9 million; Katsina 3.5 million; FCT with 3.4 million; Rivers 3 million; Bauchi 2.7 million and Delta which also recorded 2.7 million.
NIMC data shows that the 10 states with the lowest NIN issued are Akwa-Ibom 1.7 million, Imo 1.7 million, Kogi 1.7 million; Enugu 1.63 million, Yobe 1.6 million, Taraba 1.46 million, Cross River 1.16 million, Ekiti 1 million, Ebonyi 810,612, and Bayelsa 638,660.
According to the monthly reports, the NIMC data shows that 57.7 million Nigerians, which accounts for 56.79% of those registered in the NIN database, are male. In contrast, 43.9 million, representing 43.21% of the total enrollees, are female.
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