In the initial eight months of the year, the National Identity Management Commission has achieved a registration rate of only 47.6 percent, falling short of the Federal Government’s monthly target of 2.5 million registrations.
According to The PUNCH, in August, the total count of Nigerians with National Identification Numbers reached 102.39 million, showcasing a notable growth despite a deceleration in the rate of enrolments.
Based on the data provided by the National Identity Management Commission and analysed by our correspondent, there has been a decline of 35.14 percent in enrolment for the National Identification Number during the first eight months of the year. As of August 28, 2023, the number of individuals who have enrolled for NIN stands at 8.36 million, compared to the 12.89 million individuals who had enrolled as of July 7, 2022.
The average monthly enrollment for the National Identification Number over the initial eight months of 2023 is 1.19 million. According to the data, it is evident that the country is not meeting its monthly target of enrolling 2.5 million National Identification Numbers, as outlined in the National Development Plan for the period of 2021-2025.
In the year 2022, the commission successfully recorded a total of 21.33 million individuals, wherein the number of individuals enrolled in the National Identification Number increased from 72.7 million on January 1, 2022, to 94.03 million by December 31, 2022. The monthly average of National Identification Number enrolments for the year was 1.78 million.
According to the outlined strategy, the Federal Government has articulated its intention to facilitate the enrollment of 100 million Nigerian citizens over a span of three years, with a monthly target of 2.5 million individuals. The insufficiency of available data has emerged as a pressing issue inside the nation, necessitating the implementation of a registration campaign to effectively tackle this challenge.
The government revealed, “The latest of these is the Nigerian Communications Commission linking SIM Registration Data to the National Identity Number Database. NIMC plans to register an additional 100 million people in three years and has embarked on a massive registration drive. The plan is to enroll 2.5 million people monthly for the next three years.”
