The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has strengthened strategic partnerships with the Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Food Security, Education, and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to deepen digital identity integration, improve public service delivery and support Nigeria’s digital transformation agenda.
The engagements, held separately in Abuja, focused on leveraging the National Identification Number (NIN) to improve food security interventions, education planning, business registration and identity verification, with stakeholders agreeing that a trusted digital identity system is critical to national development.
During a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, both institutions agreed to strengthen collaboration to ensure government agricultural interventions, reach genuine farmers and entrepreneurs through NIMC’s identity verification platform.
Kyari said the ministry had already leveraged NIMC’s expertise to identify genuine beneficiaries of its intervention programmes, adding that youth participation in agriculture had increased significantly over the past three years.
He also disclosed that government was restructuring its subsidy programme to encourage self-reliance among beneficiaries.
“It shouldn’t be a subsidy that will go on perpetually. We have a plan whereby beneficiaries receive support in the first year, the assistance reduces in the second year, and by the third year they should be able to stand on their own,” the minister said, noting that the approach would create opportunities for new farmers to benefit from government support.
Responding, NIMC Director-General, Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote described agriculture as one of Nigeria’s most strategic sectors because of its importance to food security.
She assured the ministry of continued support in identifying beneficiaries and said the newly enacted NIMC Act had positioned the commission at the centre of digital government services through stronger collaboration among public institutions.
At a separate meeting with the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, both organisations agreed to deepen the integration of education records with the National Identification Number as part of efforts to build a trusted national identity system and improve planning across the education sector.
Alausa described identity management as fundamental to national development and praised President Bola Tinubu for driving reforms through technology.
He said the education sector currently maintains about 80 million learner records and had developed the National Education Number, which aligns with the National Identification Number to enable biometric verification and credible education data.
“We have almost 80 million people in the education sector. That makes us your biggest ally. We will support everything your agency needs to ensure that we have a single source of truth for the country,” Alausa said, adding that technology remains the most effective tool for improving governance, transparency and accountability.
Coker-Odusote said NIMC had commenced nationwide sensitisation on the NIMC Act 2026, which strengthens the commission’s role as Nigeria’s foundational identity authority.
She disclosed that Nigeria now has more than 120.6 million enrolled citizens, making it the largest identity database in Africa and the fourth largest globally.
The NIMC Director-General also led a delegation to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), where she said stronger collaboration would improve identity verification, enhance digital service delivery and support secure electronic transactions through the deployment of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
She noted that the reforms align Nigeria’s identity management framework with international best practices.
Responding, CAC Registrar-General Hussaini Ishaq Magaji described NIMC as a strategic partner in promoting technology driven government services.
He said stronger identity validation would improve corporate registration, reduce fraud and combat money laundering, while expressing support for the introduction of PKI and requesting that CAC be considered as an aggregator for NIMC’s identity verification services.
Both agencies reaffirmed their commitment to building a secure digital identity ecosystem that supports ease of doing business and the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
