The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has announced a significant milestone in its efforts to streamline Nigeria’s citizen identification system. In a move aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s directive to create an accurate National Social Register for social investment programmes, the agency has identified and purged over 6,000 non-Nigerian records from its database. This extensive clean-up comes as part of a broader inter-ministerial drive to ensure that funds for initiatives like conditional cash transfers and student loans are disbursed only to the most vulnerable Nigerians.
Note that on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo briefed the Federal Executive Council on the recent activities of NIMC. The minister detailed how the agency, under his purview, had withdrawn National Identification Numbers (NINs) erroneously issued to illegal holders. “The NIMC has been tidying up its database and, in doing so, found over 6,000 cases of non-Nigerians—primarily from the neighboring Niger Republic—registered with a NIN. These records have now been wiped from our system,” he affirmed.
This measure is crucial for the success of the Federal Government’s social investment programmes. According to sources at the Presidency, President Tinubu is determined to ensure that the National Social Register reflects only genuine beneficiaries. “The humanitarian ministry needs accurate data to target cash transfers and student loans effectively. The President does not want disbursement of funds to ghost beneficiaries. It is imperative that every payment goes to a verifiable, real person,” a senior official explained.
The clean-up follows a series of earlier incidents that exposed vulnerabilities in the NIMC system. In October 2022, Defence Headquarters reported that a joint operation by troops, the Nigeria Police, and the Nigeria Immigration Service had intercepted two suspected fake NIMC officials. The suspects were found to have visited the Gagamari IDP camp in the Niger Republic to register non-Nigerians—charging fees in exchange for a Nigerian NIN—and had been in possession of registration equipment including a printing machine and a laminating machine. This incident underscored the ease with which fraudulent registrations could occur in border communities, highlighting the need for a robust verification mechanism.
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Director-General Bisoye Coker-Odusote emphasized in a recent phone interview that the ongoing data clean-up is not only about preventing fraud but also about enhancing transparency and efficiency in government payments. “With a clean and verified NIMC database, the funds for humanitarian programmes will reach those who truly need them. The NIN acts as a digital fingerprint, linking biometric and demographic data to each citizen. This system helps ensure that beneficiaries are real, thereby saving the country money and reinforcing public confidence in government interventions,” she said.
The initiative has also prompted high-level inter-ministerial collaboration. Following the Interior Ministry’s briefing, President Tinubu convened a Special Presidential Panel on social investment reforms. The panel, now bolstered by the participation of the National Security Adviser, the Education Minister, and the Humanitarian Affairs Minister among others, aims to oversee the comprehensive diagnostic and reform of the social investment programmes. This move follows President Tinubu’s earlier suspension of all Social Investment Programmes for six weeks and the establishment of an interim panel led by Mr. Wale Edun.
Security experts, however, caution that while the clean-up is a welcome step, it reflects broader challenges related to porous borders and undocumented migration. Brig. Gen. Aliyu Momoh (retd.) noted, “Our borders remain porous, and undocumented foreigners have long taken advantage of these gaps. The issue isn’t new, but without strong political will, we will continue to see instances of non-Nigerians obtaining Nigerian NINs.”
As the NIMC works to register more Nigerians and fine-tune its database, the Federal Government is hopeful that a verifiable National Social Register will serve as a cornerstone for efficient and transparent delivery of social services. With the stakes high—ranging from ensuring that cash transfers reach the right hands to preventing fraud in student loan disbursements—this renewed focus on identity management signals a decisive effort by the Tinubu administration to reform social investment programmes and restore public confidence.
