The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has uncovered over 6,000 Nigeriens illegally registered in its database with the National Identification Number (NIN), prompting a widespread clean-up of the system.
This revelation comes as President Bola Tinubu directed an inter-ministerial committee to ensure a comprehensive and accurate National Social Register for the Federal Government’s social investment programmes.
Presidency sources confirmed to Punch that the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, briefed the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on February 4, 2025, on the fraudulent registrations and ongoing database sanitization efforts.
The minister reportedly stated that the illegally acquired NINs had been withdrawn from the database as part of the clean-up initiative.
Past Cases Of Fake NIMC Agents Exposed
Concerns over the illegal registration of foreigners were first raised in October 2022, when the Defence Headquarters in Abuja disclosed that troops, in conjunction with the Nigeria Police and the Nigeria Immigration Service, arrested two suspected fake NIMC officials attempting to register non-Nigerians in border communities.
At the time, Maj.-Gen. Musa Danmadami, who served as the Director of Defence Media Operations, confirmed the arrests, stating, “It was revealed that the suspects had visited the Gagamari IDP camp in the Niger Republic to register non-Nigerians in the IDP camp.”
Authorities seized various items from the suspects, including:
NIN registration machines
Printing machines
Laminating machines
Computer tracking devices
A generator set
The fraudulent activities reportedly extended to border communities, allowing non-Nigerian citizens, particularly from the Niger Republic, to fraudulently obtain Nigerian NINs in exchange for money.
In response to the ongoing clean-up, President Tinubu has mandated that the NIMC database be refined to ensure it accurately reflects details of vulnerable Nigerians eligible for social interventions, such as:
Conditional cash transfers
Student loan disbursements
Government social investment programmes
A Presidency source who spoke on the development said, “It was the Minister of Interior that gave that briefing because, you know, NIMC is under him.
“The interior minister said NIMC is tidying up the database because they found over 6,000 people from Niger Republic who obtained NIN. But they have been wiped from the database.
“The humanitarian ministry needs the data for its social register to perform its function. Also, the education ministry needs that data for student loans. The President doesn’t want to disburse money to people they cannot identify. They (NIMC) are ensuring that they verify the data. They are also registering more Nigerians and fine-tuning the data. So, the President wants it done quickly.”
The source revealed that after the briefing, the President asked the national security adviser and the interior minister to join an existing panel overseeing the humanitarian ministry.
Recall that while announcing the suspension of the former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, on January 7, 2024, Tinubu asked a panel headed by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance to, among other functions, “conduct a comprehensive diagnostic on the financial architecture and framework of the social investment programmes to conclusively reform the relevant institutions and programmes in a determined bid to eliminate all institutional frailties for the exclusive benefit of disadvantaged households and win back lost public confidence in the initiative.”
On January 12, the President suspended for six weeks all Social Investment Programmes administered by the National Social Investment Programme Agency, including the school feeding programme.
A day later, he approved the establishment of a Special Presidential Panel to be led by Wale Edun.
The SPP included the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance as Chairman and Prof. Ali Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, as a member.
Other members are the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu; the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammad Idris; Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijjani; and the Minister of Youth, Ayodele Olawande.
The panel now includes the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu; the Interior Minister, Tunji-Ojo; the Education Minister, Tunji Alausa; and the Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Dr Nentawe Yilwatda.
Another source at Tuesday’s FEC meeting said, “It is an inter-ministerial committee; the President asked the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and the Minister of Interior to join. The National Security Adviser is also on that committee. The interior minister is there because, you know, NIMC is under him.”
To provide further context for the developments, the Director-General of NIMC, Bisoye Coker-Odusote, said the agency was working to ensure transparency and accuracy in government payments, particularly for humanitarian purposes.
In a phone interview with Punch on Friday, she said, “There is a presidential panel for the humanitarian ministry. If you recall, when the former minister left, they set up an interim panel. So the Minister of Interior and the others have been added to that panel to ensure that they can use the NIN to make payments for humanitarian ministry so that the NIN can be used to ensure accuracy and transparency.
“This literally means that the people collecting money are not ghost beneficiaries, they’re real people, and they’re identifiable. So, you have to use a verifiable set of records to identify them, and that’s where NIMC comes into play using the NIN.
“It will save the country a lot of money if you can tie NIN and identify those beneficiaries. That way, everything is transparent. Nigerians can see that the government has made the right choice and has paid the people that receive the money. The people that really need the money are the ones that get the money.”
Coker-Odusote added that the data clean-up would ensure accurate and verifiable details on the National Social Register.
“The National Social Register under humanitarian [ministry] houses the names of all the beneficiaries they want to pay.
“Now, you have to be able to verify the identities on those social registers, which means they must have a NIN for you to be able to make your payment.
“That way, you just ensure people don’t put fictitious names on the list. You’re able to make sure you verify the identities of those people. Once you’re able to verify the identity, you can make payments,” she added.
The NIMC DG clarified that recent reports about SIM registration concerns stemmed from the telecommunication companies, which had been rectified.
“What has been in the news about NIN-SIM linkage is from the telcos’ end. The telcos have more than one number for each person.
“So, they had an issue, a glitch on their end, and they corrected it already. It has nothing to do with NIMC. We don’t collect more than one phone number,” she stated.
