160
By Myke Agunwa, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) have agreed on a collaborative relationship that will allow Nigerians to use a single identity for voting and solve other biometric needs.
Both institutions reignited this effort when NIMC management paid a courtesy call to INEC’s leadership on Wednesday at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
In her opening remarks, the Director General of NIMC, Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, stated that the collaboration aligns with NIMC’s mandate to harmonize data across all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
Coker-Odusote explained that the partnership would create a trust-based system that would benefit Nigerians across sectors, particularly in voting, while promoting transparency, accountability, and fairness.
She stated that this initiative is in line with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which emphasizes promoting credible elections through a reliable identity system.
According to the NIMC boss, “The goal set out in front of us is very key because we must ensure that we provide systems that are trusted by the public.
“Ensuring that we do what is required to satisfy Nigerians and uphold our mandate, which aligns with the will of the people.
“One of the key steps forward is to begin with INEC’s voter registration exercise, ensuring NIMC’s participation during this process.
“This initiative aims to provide Nigerians at the community level with access to enroll and register for the NIN in collaboration with INEC,” Coker-Odusote said.
Addressing questions from the media about when Nigerians will have access to a single NIMC Identity Card for various purposes, she noted that it remains a work in progress.
“It is ongoing, a work in progress across the board, and we are working diligently to achieve this. The end goal is to arrive at that, and we are moving very quickly to make it happen,” she added.
In his remarks, INEC Chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu expressed hope for a future where INEC can draw voter information directly from the NIMC database.
“We look forward to the day when your database will serve as the single source of truth for citizenship identification in Nigeria. When the time comes, the national register of voters may simply draw from the citizenship register, as is common in many jurisdictions around the world. This could also enable citizens to vote in future elections from their preferred locations across the country, rather than relying on the locations where they register as voters. To achieve this long-term goal, we will deepen our collaboration with NIMC,” Yakubu said.
He added that INEC and NIMC are already working together during the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, ensuring that anyone coming for a voter’s card also enrolls for the National Identity Number (NIN).
“As part of this collaboration, NIMC is deploying officials to some of our registration centers during the nationwide CVR. The goal is to give more Nigerians the opportunity to enroll for the NIN while registering as voters. We conducted a pilot in Anambra State from 8th to 20th July 2025, and we are now scaling this up nationwide. Citizens will have the chance to register for both the voter ID and the NIN simultaneously.
In due course, NIMC will share details about the locations of our CVR centers where its officials will be deployed, along with the modalities for NIN registration,” Yakubu said.