The Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, says Nigeria has moved away from fragmented identity databases, with the National Identification Number (NIN) now serving as the country’s primary identity.
Speaking at the ID4Africa Annual General Meeting in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and later in an interview with Vanguard, Coker-Odusote said NIMC has integrated major government databases based on their specific use cases, allowing the NIN to function as the central identity while linking sector-specific identifiers such as the Bank Verification Number (BVN).
According to her, agencies responsible for taxation, immigration, healthcare, education, security, aviation and social intervention programmes now rely on the NIN as a common identity platform. She added that banks, telecommunications companies, insurance firms and fintechs also use NIMC’s real-time verification system to authenticate customers.
Coker-Odusote explained that while identifiers like the BVN remain relevant within their respective sectors, the NIN serves as the universal identity across all sectors.
Under the system, organisations are expected to verify individuals by matching their fingerprints or facial images with biometric records linked to their NIN. Once verified, authorised institutions can retrieve identity information through NIMC’s authentication platform instead of requiring citizens to repeatedly submit the same personal details.
Despite these claims, many Nigerians say their day-to-day experiences tell a different story.
Although the country has made progress in building a unified digital identity system, technology experts, financial institutions and policy analysts say many organisations have yet to fully adopt the authentication services needed to deliver seamless identity verification.
As a result, Nigerians still frequently complete lengthy forms when applying for services such as international passports, driver’s licences, tax clearance certificates and bank accounts.
One Lagos resident, David Omobola, said he recently opened a bank account despite already having a NIN but was still required to provide his personal information from scratch.
According to him, the process suggested that integration between the national identity database and institutional systems remains incomplete.
“I recently opened a First Bank account and had to provide all my details again, including my name, age and date of birth, even after presenting my NIN,” he said.
Omobola believes full integration has not yet been achieved, noting that citizens would not need to repeatedly submit the same information if institutions were fully connected to the national identity system.
Another Nigerian, Mercy Obadare, shared her experience with inconsistent personal records across government databases.
She said she discovered that the date of birth on her NIN differed from the one on her international passport while processing official documents.
The discrepancy forced her to begin a lengthy correction process at the NIMC office in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, where she said repeated server outages delayed the exercise for more than six months.
According to Obadare, when services eventually resumed, she was required to undergo a revalidation process that cost more than N40,000, with her total expenses exceeding N80,000 before the issue was resolved.
She added that the incorrect information also affected her Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC), which could only be corrected after her NIN records were updated.
Obadare said many other Nigerians faced similar challenges during the same period.
Industry stakeholders acknowledge that Nigeria has made significant progress in establishing the NIN as the country’s foundational digital identity. However, they maintain that full interoperability has yet to be achieved because many institutions are still gradually adopting NIMC’s authentication infrastructure.
Founder of Afri Invoice, Mark Odenore, said the country has advanced considerably but still has work to do before citizens experience a fully integrated and seamless identity verification system.
