National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) says it has so far enrolled a total of 137,371,080 Nigerians into the NIN database, just as it acknowledged that millions more remained to be captured in the system.

Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the commission, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, who said this during a television interview, last weekend, further disclosed that President Bola Tinubu had set 2026 ending as deadline for the completion of the nationwide enrolment exercise.

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“As of this evening, we have enrolled 137,371,080 Nigerians.

“We still have a shortage because Nigeria’s population is estimated at about 200 million, while some estimates put it at 230 million or even 250 million. When we finish enrolling everyone, we’ll know the actual figure,” she stated.

Coker-Odusote said President Tinubu had instructed the commission to ensure that no eligible Nigerian is left out of the national identity database before the end of the year.

“The President has given us until the end of this year to make sure that we capture every single Nigerian,” she said.

To accelerate the exercise, the NIMC boss said the commission had expanded enrolment beyond its offices in local government areas by taking registration services directly to wards and communities nationwide.

She explained that the initiative was being implemented through partnerships with private-sector enrolment partners under the World Bank-supported Identification for Development (ID4D) project.

According to her, the partners now conduct registrations at the community level to make the process easier and more accessible for Nigerians, particularly those in underserved areas.

“We have partnered through the World Bank ID4D project with front-end partners. They are part of the digital identity ecosystem, and they are enrolling citizens on our behalf at the community level,” she said.

Coker-Odusote also said the recently amended NIMC Act had made it compulsory for every Nigerian to obtain a National Identification Number, describing the NIN as the country’s foundational identity system for accessing public and private sector services.

She expressed confidence that the commission would achieve the Federal Government’s target through the ongoing expansion of registration centres and community-based enrolment initiatives.