The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has struggled to achieve just 47.6 percent of the Federal Government’s monthly registration goal of 2.5 million in the first eight months of this year.
This comes even as the number of Nigerians possessing National Identification Numbers (NIN) surged to 102.39 million in August, despite a noticeable slowdown in enrolments.
Data obtained and analyzed by our correspondent from NIMC reveal a disconcerting 35.14 percent year-on-year drop in enrolment during the initial eight months of the year.
As of August 28, 2023, only 8.36 million individuals have enrolled for NIN in this year, a significant dip from the 12.89 million registered by July 7, 2022.
Shockingly, the average monthly NIN enrolment rate for the first eight months of 2023 stands at 1.19 million, clearly falling short of the country’s targeted 2.5 million enrolments per month as outlined in the National Development Plan 2021-2025.
In contrast, last year, the commission managed to register 21.33 million individuals, leading to a rise in NIN enrolment from 72.7 million on January 1, 2022, to 94.03 million by December 31, 2022.
The average monthly NIN enrolment for 2022 amounted to 1.78 million.
The Federal Government had articulated ambitious plans to enrol 100 million Nigerians within three years, translating to 2.5 million individuals monthly. This initiative was primarily aimed at addressing the scarcity of accurate data within the country.
The government emphasized, “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.”