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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) have announced plans to strengthen synergy to harmonise voter registration with the national identity database.
The move, according to the authorities, is to enhance electoral credibility and simplify future elections in Nigeria.
Speaking during a meeting with the NIMC management team in Abuja on Wednesday, September 3, 2025, INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said the collaboration was designed to ensure more Nigerians are captured simultaneously in both the Voter Register and the National Identification Number (NIN) system.
The electoral umpire boss further noted that INEC and NIMC collectively hold the largest biometric databases of citizens in the country.
He said: “We look forward to the day when the NIMC database will serve as the single source of truth for citizenship identification in Nigeria. When that time comes, the National Register of Voters may simply draw from the citizenship register, as is the case in many countries around the world.”
Yakubu added that such integration could in future allow Nigerians to vote from any location across the country rather than being restricted to where they initially registered.
The commission’s Chairman disclosed that the electoral umpire, in collaboration with NIMC, successfully conducted a pilot scheme in Anambra State during the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise held from July 8 to 30, 2025. The initiative enabled citizens to register as voters while simultaneously enrolling for the NIN.
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“We are now ready to scale this up nationwide,” Yakubu announced. “Citizens will therefore have the opportunity to register as voters while simultaneously registering for the NIN where they have not done so before.”
Speaking earlier, NIMC Director-General, Bisoye Coker-Odusote, described INEC as a vital partner in the agency’s mandate to integrate and harmonise data across ministries, departments, and agencies.
“In line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, government is very keen on ensuring credible elections anchored on a reliable identity management system.
“We must provide systems that the public can trust, and ensure that we meet the expectations of Nigerians while faithfully discharging our mandate,” she said.
Coker-Odusote further explained that NIMC would deploy officials to selected CVR centres to make it easier for citizens at the community level to obtain their NIN while registering to vote.
“This joint initiative reflects our shared commitment to strengthening identity management and electoral integrity in Nigeria,” she added.
