National Identity Number: Nigeria Registers 37 Million Citizens

• National Identity Number: Nigeria Registers 37 Million Citizens

Lanre Osibona, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Information, Communication, and Technology, has said that the total number of Nigerians registered under the National Identity Number is over 37 million.

The National Identity Number is part of government efforts to digitalise the nation.

Osibona said, “For those who have registered, they can verify their NIN by typing *346# from their registered phone number. We inherited the record of five million registered Nigerians when we assumed office and we have grown the number to over 37 million registered Nigerians,” he said.

Osibona disclosed this at the recently concluded Lagos Fintech Week in Lagos.

He further stated that the federal government had put in place a number of initiatives to harmonisation all silo identity agencies, developed data protection and privacy bill to ensure adequate trust between the government and the citizens.

According to him, the Federal Government should have setup an independent data protection agency by now, however, the bill is still awaiting national assembly final approval.

“This is currently in the National Assembly for final adoption before being signed into law,” he added.

The Senior Adviser reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to affordable digital financial services and plans to broaden the sector by bringing financial services close to millions of Nigerians who were unbanked or under-banked.

“We have upgraded the National Identity Management Commission technology in order to scale the number of records it can hold and working with a number of stakeholders including the private sector to develop a strategy for e-commerce in the digital economy,” he said.