The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has said over 100 million Nigerians have no identity.
Director-General of the NIMC, Mr Aliyu Aziz, made the disclosure during a zoom meeting with editors.
Speaking on the topic: “Strategic Roadmap for ID Development, he said, “Over 100 million Nigerians have no identity (ID). These include the poorest and the most vulnerable groups, such as the marginalised – women and girls, the less-educated people, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, people with disabilities and people living in rural and remote areas. The estimated population of Nigeria stands at 200 million. Only about 38 percent of the population have any form of ID.”
According to the NIMC boss, the commission has enrolled and issued 41.5 million unique identifiers, known as National Identification Numbers (NIN), since the commencement of identity registration and enrolment in 2012.
According to him, the commission registers all Nigerian citizens physically present and those outside Nigeria as well as the legal residents.
“Between 2012 till date, only 41.5 million citizens and legal residents have been enrolled into the National Identity Database (NIDB) and issued unique NIN, an average of 5.2 million enrollments per annum.
“At this rate, it will take a long time to enroll the remainder of the people currently living in the country today, and by that time, about 292 million more people would have been added.
“Hence the need for a strategy to enroll the backlog within the shortest possible time. And that is the reason for the idea of strategic roadmap and the birth of the ecosystem approach,’’ he said.