Nigeria's National ID System Remains Disjointed, Contrary to NIMC's Assertions

The Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, has stated that Nigeria has moved beyond the era of fragmented identity databases, with the National Identification Number, NIN, serving as the country's master identity linking records across government and the private sector.

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However, many Nigerians have reported having to fill out lengthy forms when attempting to obtain or renew international passports, driver's licenses, or tax clearance, contradicting Coker-Odusote's claim, as they recount their experiences of repeated data collection.

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Coker-Odusote made this claim during the ID4Africa Annual General Meeting in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and in a subsequent interview with Vanguard, where she explained that NIMC has integrated key government databases based on their respective use cases.

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According to Coker-Odusote, agencies responsible for taxation, immigration, education, healthcare, security, aviation, and social intervention programmes now rely on the NIN as the common identity layer, while banks, telecommunications companies, insurance firms, and fintechs authenticate customers through NIMC's real-time verification platform.

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She emphasized that the NIN serves as the master identity across sectors, while sector-specific identifiers continue to perform specialized functions, citing the example that the Bank Verification Number, BVN, only works for the financial sector, whereas the NIN works for all sectors.

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Under the system, organizations are expected to authenticate an individual's identity by matching their fingerprint or facial image against the biometric record linked to the person's NIN, after which authorized institutions can securely retrieve verified identity information through NIMC's authentication platform.

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Coker-Odusote noted that banks, telecom operators, insurance companies, and fintech firms are already using this real-time verification infrastructure, which aims to eliminate the need for citizens to repeatedly provide the same biodata.

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For decades, government agencies and private organizations maintained separate identity databases that rarely communicated with one another, forcing citizens to repeatedly submit the same personal information, while institutions often held conflicting records for the same individual.

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However, based on interviews with technology experts, bankers, and policy analysts, the claim of seamless integration is not as straightforward as Coker-Odusote made it sound, with many pointing to the continued practice of making Nigerians fill out extensive forms.

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Experts say this points less to the absence of a national identity infrastructure than to uneven adoption of authentication services across institutions, highlighting the gap between what the infrastructure is designed to deliver and what Nigerians actually experience.

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Mr. David Omobola's recent experience of opening a new bank account in Lagos, where he was asked to complete forms containing information he believed should already exist in the national identity database, raises questions about the level of integration achieved so far.

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Omobola expressed his skepticism about the integration of NIN into the systems of government agencies and private organizations, citing his experience as evidence that there is still a long way to go.

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The real question, according to experts, is no longer whether the NIN has become Nigeria's foundational identity credential, but rather whether organizations have fully adopted the authentication and interoperability tools needed to translate that infrastructure into a seamless experience for citizens.

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Mrs. Mercy Obadare, a small business owner, faced a different challenge when a mismatch between her NIN record and international passport created months of frustration, highlighting the cost of data mismatches in the digital identity ecosystem.

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Obadare's experience, which included a lengthy correction process and significant financial costs, illustrates one of the hidden risks of a digital identity ecosystem, where records are linked but the underlying data is inaccurate.

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Founder of Afri Invoice, Mr. Mark Odenore, believes that Nigeria has made progress but remains far from achieving seamless interoperability, acknowledging the complexity of the reality on the ground.