The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has identified over 6,000 Nigeriens registered on its database with the National Identification Number (NIN).
This came as President Bola Tinubu authorised an inter-ministerial group to secure comprehensive data for the National Social Register and the Federal Government’s social investment programs.
According to reliable presidential sources, on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, informed the Federal Executive Council on the activities of NIMC, an institution under his purview.
According to reports, the minister confirmed that the NINs had been taken from unauthorised holders as part of an ongoing database cleanup.
On October 13, 2022, the Defence Headquarters in Abuja announced that troops, working with the Nigeria Police and Nigeria Immigration Service operatives, intercepted two alleged phoney NIMC officials.
Maj.-Gen. Musa Danmadami, the Director of Defence Media Operations at the time, in a statement, said, “It was revealed that the suspects had visited the Gagamari IDP camp in the Niger Republic to register non-Nigerians in the IDP camp.
“Items recovered from the suspects include a National Identification Number registration machine, a printing machine, a laminating machine, a computer tracking machine, and a generator set, among other items.”
Fake agents were charging non-Nigerian citizens, mostly from neighbouring countries like Niger Republic, to obtain Nigerian NINs.
Investigations revealed that such fraudulent registrations occurred in border communities, increasing the risk of unauthorised access to Nigerian identity credentials.
The NIMC enrols citizens and legal residents and assigns them a unique NIN, which is linked to their biometric and demographic information.
Sources at the Presidency told our correspondent that President Tinubu wanted the existing database to reflect the details of the most disadvantaged Nigerians who needed social interventions such as conditional cash transfers and student loans.
A source said, “It was the Minister of Interior that gave that briefing because, you know, NIMC is under him.
“The interior minister said NIMC is tidying up the database because they found over 6,000 people from Niger Republic who obtained NIN. But they have been wiped from the database.
“The humanitarian ministry needs the data for its social register to perform its function. Also, the education ministry needs that data for student loans. The president doesn’t want to disburse money to people they cannot identify. They (NIMC) are ensuring that they verify the data. They are also registering more Nigerians and fine-tuning the data. So, the president wants it done quickly.”
The source revealed that after the briefing, the president asked the national security adviser and the interior minister to join an existing panel overseeing the humanitarian ministry.
Recall that while announcing the suspension of the former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, on January 7, 2024, Tinubu tasked a panel headed by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance to, among other functions, “conduct a comprehensive diagnostic on the financial architecture and framework of the social investment programs to conclusively reform the relevant institutions and programs in a determined bid to eliminate all institutional frailties for the exclusive benefit of disadvantaged households and win back lost public confidence in the initiative.”
On January 12, Tinubu suspended all social investment programs administered by the National Social Investment Programme Agency, including the school feeding program, for six weeks.
A day later, the president approved the establishment of a special presidential panel to be led by Mr. Wale Edun.
The SPP was chaired by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance, with Prof. Ali Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, serving as a member.
Other members are Abubakar Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning; Muhammad Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation; Bosun Tijjani, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and the Digital Economy; and Ayodele Olawande, Minister of Youth.
The group currently includes the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu; the Interior Minister, Tunji-Ojo; the Education Minister, Tunji Alausa; and the Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Dr. Nentawe Yilwatda.
Another source at Tuesday’s FEC meeting said, “It is an inter-ministerial committee; the President asked the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and the Minister of Interior to join. The National Security Adviser is also on that committee. The interior minister is there because, you know, NIMC is under him.”
Giving background to the happenings, NIMC’s Director-General, Bisoye Coker-Odusote, stated that the organisation was trying to promote transparency and correctness in government payments, particularly for humanitarian purposes.
In an interview on Friday, she said, “There is a presidential panel for the humanitarian ministry. If you recall, when the former minister left, they set up an interim panel. So the Minister of Interior and the others have been added to that panel to ensure that they can use the NIN to make payments for humanitarian ministry so that the NIN can be used to ensure accuracy and transparency.
“This literally means that the people collecting money are not ghost beneficiaries; they’re real people, and they’re identifiable. So, you have to use a verifiable set of records to identify them, and that’s where NIMC comes into play using the NIN.
“It will save the country a lot of money if you can tie NIN and identify those beneficiaries. That way, everything is transparent. Nigerians can see that the government has made the right choice and has paid the people that receive the money. The people that really need the money are the ones that get the money.”
Coker-Odusote further disclosed that the data clean-up would ensure accurate and verifiable details on the National Social Register.
“The National Social Register under the humanitarian [ministry] houses the names of all the beneficiaries they want to pay.
“Now, you have to be able to verify the identities on those social registers, which means they must have a NIN for you to be able to make your payment.
“That way, you just ensure people don’t put fictitious names on the list. You’re able to make sure you verify the identities of those people. Once you’re able to verify the identity, you can make payments,” she added.
The NIMC DG elucidated that recent reports about SIM registration concerns stemmed from the telecommunication companies, which had been rectified.
“What has been in the news about NIN-SIM linkage is from the telcos’ end. The telcos have more than one number for each person.
“So, they had an issue, a glitch on their end, and they corrected it already. It has nothing to do with NIMC. We don’t collect more than one phone number,” she stated.
As of the time of filing this report, the spokesperson for the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. Sola Akinlabi, had yet to comment on the issue.
