The Director General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote
Senior officials of NIMC
National Commissioners of INEC
Other Senior Officials of the Commission
The Chairman and Members of the INEC Press Corps
Ladies and Gentlemen
1. Today, we are honored to host the Director-General and the management team of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC). I am particularly glad that the Director General is accompanied by her management team many of whom have the institutional memory of the long-standing collaboration between our two agencies. Under the leadership of the current Director General, we have engaged at different times with the intention of solidifying our partnership in the area of identity management. As is well known, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) holds the database of citizens for the purpose of elections while NIMC has the record of citizens generally. Together, our two agencies hold the largest biometric databases of citizens in Nigeria.
2. Since the ultimate goal is to enroll every citizen with NIMC, 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 the case in many jurisdictions around the world. This may also enable citizens to vote in future elections from their places of choice anywhere in the country rather than the places they register as voters as is the case at present. To achieve this long-term goal, we will continue to deepen our collaboration with NIMC.
3. It is in furtherance of this collaboration that NIMC is deploying its officials to some of our registration centres during the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR). The idea is to provide more Nigerians who are yet to enroll for the National Identification Number (NIN) the opportunity to do so. Working with NIMC, we carried out a pilot during the recent CVR in Anambra State from 8th to 20th July 2025. We are now set to scale it up nationwide. Citizens will therefore have the opportunity to register as voters while simultaneously registering for the NIN.
4. In due course, NIMC will provide details of the locations of our CVR centers where it will deploy its officials and also provide the modalities for the NIN registration.
5. We welcome this partnership with NIMC which is in keeping with our commitment to synergize with every national institution to strengthen electoral activities in Nigeria.
6. Once again, I thank the DG NIMC for this visit and may God continue to bless our effort.