…Lagos registers 11m, Kano 9m new NINs
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) issued a total of 634,603 new National Identification Numbers (NIN) in July.
This brought the total number of issued NIN to 101.64 million as of July 25, 2023, from 101 million recorded in June.
The July record shows a slowdown in the enrolment as NIMC had been recording an average of 1 million new enrolments in the past months.
According to the NIMC data, Lagos State maintained the top spot by recording the highest number of enrolments in the country with 11.07 million Nigerians captured in the State.
This was followed by Kano State, which recorded 9 million registered NIN.
The two most populous states in Nigeria, according to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics have maintained the lead in NIN enrolment since the beginning of the exercise.
In terms of the gender distribution of the enrollees, the NIMC data reveals that 57.7 million, representing 56.79% of Nigerians so far captured in the NIN database are male. On the flip side, 43.9 million, representing 43.21% of the total enrollees are female.
Top and bottom states
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.
World Bank’s target
The slowdown in enrollments in July may further affect the country’s ability to meet the World Bank’s target under the Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) project.
Under the project terms, Nigeria is expected to have issued 148 million NIN by June 2024.
Even with an average of 1 million enrolments monthly, Nigeria was not certain to meet the deadline which is now less than a year.
Aside from issuing NIN to 148 million Nigerians by 2024, the Bank listed other targets to include the issuance of NIN to at least 65 million female Nigerians by June 1, 2024, as well as 50 million NIN to children under 16 years of age.
What you should know
The ID4D project, which commenced in 2019, is being financed through an International Development Association (IDA) credit of US$115 million and 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.
The bank said the objective of the Digital Identification for Development Project for Nigeria is to increase the number of persons with a national ID number, issued by a robust and inclusive foundational Identification (ID) system, that facilitates their access to services.
