LAGOS — Nigeria’s ambitious drive to capture comprehensive national digital identities faces a severe roadblock, as the World Bank warns that nearly 59 million citizens remain excluded from the National Identification Number (NIN) database due to a crippling standoff over unpaid registration agents and operational bottlenecks.
According to the World Bank’s October 2026 restructuring paper for Nigeria’s Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) project, the nationwide enrolment campaign has stalled largely because Front-End Partners (FEP)—the private registration agents engaged by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)—have not been compensated since January 2026.
The financial logjam threatens the federal government’s directive to scale NIN coverage to 95 per cent of the population by December 2026.
The Enrolment Gap
Data cited in the World Bank report indicates that as of September 30, 2026, approximately 121 million Nigerians had been successfully issued NINs. This leaves a steep shortfall of roughly 59 million people short of the 180 million target.
The shortfall persists despite previous assertions by NIMC leadership. Last month, Dr. Alvan Ikoku, Director of NIMC’s Strategic Programme Office, informed alumni of the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) programme that the commission had captured 142 million records, with 100 million formally issued NINs at the time. However, the World Bank’s baseline highlights that operational hurdles continue to dilute the pace of digital inclusion.
The NIN remains a foundational requirement across Nigeria for accessing public services, driving financial inclusion, and conducting digital identity verification. Without a steady, uninhibited registration network, millions risk being locked out of the formal economy.
At the Heart of the Dispute: Audits vs. Invoices
The World Bank maintains that meeting the 180 million enrolment threshold requires a total overhaul of NIMC’s billing architecture. The international financial institution insists that the commission’s billing system must produce audited FEP payment reports to guarantee timely disbursements to registration partners.
Resolving this compensation dispute forms one of seven critical conditionalities outlined by the World Bank to sustain the ID4D project.
However, the administrative friction remains a point of internal disagreement. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior NIMC official defended the commission’s position, stating that NIMC’s primary operational responsibility regarding agent payments involves collating FEP invoices and transmitting them to the World Bank for processing.
A Roadmap for Remediation
To rescue the lagging project, the World Bank paper outlines a strict series of corrective milestones that NIMC must clear:
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- Training and Certification: Launching the Learning Management System (LMS) to rigorously train and certify FEP enrolment agents, which carried a compliance deadline of October 31, 2026.
- Hardware Deployment: Deploying 7,000 mobile enrolment devices procured under the project, complete with active registration modules, slated for January 2027.
- Grassroots Expansion: Extending mobile and institutional enrolment campaigns directly into underserved rural communities and academic institutions nationwide.
As pressure mounts ahead of the government’s year-end target, stakeholders stress that restoring financial confidence among front-line registration partners is critical to bridging Nigeria’s digital divide and ensuring no citizen is left behind.