…Senator Umeh hails progress in Nigeria’s digital identity drive

By Juliet Umeh

The Federal Government has said Nigeria is upgrading its national identity system to an open-source and locally driven model to reduce costs and improve digital inclusion across Africa.

Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Identity Management Commission, Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, disclosed this at the ongoing ID4Africa Annual General Meeting in Ivory Coast, where African identity leaders gathered to discuss the future of digital identity systems on the continent.

Coker-Odusote while speaking at a panel session, said Nigeria’s transition from the National Identity Management System, NIMC 1.0, to NIMC 2.0 was informed by lessons learnt from operating a vendor lock-in model that became expensive to maintain and difficult to scale.

She said: “Nigeria initially built a closed-loop identity system to eliminate fragmented databases, establish a trusted foundational identity framework, ensure uniqueness and deduplication, and protect citizens’ data through central governance.

“We had a very closed-loop system which worked for us at the foundational stage, but what we are doing now is upgrading to NIMC 2.0.

“The new architecture ensures that the application is interoperable, scalable and API-driven. It is also more secure and encourages ecosystem participation,” she added.

The NIMC boss noted that vendor lock-ins had significantly increased the cost of maintaining and upgrading identity infrastructure across Africa.

“At the initial stage, the system was built from a vendor lock-in perspective, but we discovered that such models become very expensive to maintain. Open-source, in the long term, is a much more adaptable approach,” she stated.

She also disclosed that Nigeria has revised its electronic identity card programme by partnering indigenous payment infrastructure provider, AfriGO, to localise card production and management.

According to her, “the country is now producing identity card chips locally through a partnership involving a semiconductor company described as the first in West Africa, in collaboration with global chip manufacturer.

“The initiative would reduce logistics and shipping costs while strengthening Nigeria’s digital sovereignty,” she added.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Identity and National Population, Senator Victor Umeh, said Nigeria was making significant progress in digital identity management.

Speaking at the event, Umeh described identity management as critical to governance, economic participation and cross-border opportunities.

He said: “Identity is everything. Once you are properly identified and verified, you have access to a lot of things, whether in your country or across borders.”

He commended Coker-Odusote for aligning Nigeria’s identity ecosystem with global trends, noting that NIMC had become central to several national activities, including political party registrations and digital verification processes.

According to him, “political parties now rely heavily on the National Identification Number, NIN, to verify members before registration on party platforms.
“The amended Electoral Act requiring political parties to submit digital membership registers to the Independent National Electoral Commission has increased the relevance of NIMC’s verification infrastructure,” Umeh noted.

Also speaking, President of ID4Africa, Joseph Atick, urged African countries to treat digital identity as critical public infrastructure capable of driving inclusive economic growth and digital transformation across the continent.