The National Identity Management Commission has identified over 6,000 Nigeriens registered on its database with the National Identification Number.
To guarantee complete data for the National Social Register for the Federal Government’s social investment programs, President Bola Tinubu instructed an interministerial group to do just that.
On Tuesday, February 4, 2025, Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo gave a briefing to the Federal Executive Council about the operations of NIMC, an organisation under his jurisdiction.
According to reports, the minister confirmed that the NINs were removed from the unauthorized holders as part of a continuous database cleanup.
On October 13, 2022, the Defence Headquarters in Abuja said troops in conjunction with the Nigeria Police and operatives of the Nigeria Immigration Service intercepted two suspected fake NIMC officials.
The Director of Defence Media Operations at the time, Maj.-Gen. Musa Danmadami, 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 National Identification Number registration machine, printing machine, laminating machine, a computer tracking machine and a generator set among other items.”
The fake agents were reportedly charging non-Nigerian citizens, primarily from neighbouring countries such as Niger Republic, to obtain Nigerian NIN.
Investigations revealed that such fraudulent registrations occurred in border communities, further heightening the risk of unauthorised access to Nigerian identity credentials.
The NIMC enrols citizens and legal residents, assigning them a unique NIN.
