President Bola Tinubu has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to establishing a credible, secure, verifiable, and accessible national identity management system, describing it as fundamental to Nigeria’s developmental goals.
The President spoke on Thursday at the State House, Abuja, during the official launch of the NINAuth App, a digital, mobile-based identity authentication application developed by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu said his administration is leveraging technology to enhance efficiency, transparency, and accountability across all sectors of governance.
He announced that all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) will soon adopt the new app for staff and data verification.
“Today’s official launch of the NIMC NINAuth App heralds a remarkable day in our nation’s digital public infrastructure journey as Africa’s largest identity database. This innovation marks yet another milestone in our collective pursuit of a digitally empowered Nigeria,” the President said.
Tinubu emphasized that under his Renewed Hope Agenda, the federal government remains committed to modernising Nigeria’s digital infrastructure to eliminate bottlenecks and ensure that every Nigerian, regardless of background or location, has seamless access to essential services.
According to him, the NINAuth App will position Nigeria among the world’s technologically advanced nations by enabling secure, inclusive, and transparent access to public and private services while upholding the highest standards of data protection and national security.
“A credible and inclusive National Identity Management System is fundamental to our national development goals. It supports financial inclusion, strengthens social welfare delivery, enhances security, and ensures accurate population data for evidence-based planning,” Tinubu stated.
He added that every citizen and legal resident would benefit from a unified National Identity Database designed to power social programmes, improve electoral integrity, enhance healthcare access, and ensure equitable distribution of national resources.
The President commended NIMC for transforming Nigeria’s identity management process into a dynamic, technology-driven system that aligns with global best practices.
“My fellow Nigerians, the future we seek is one where technology empowers every citizen and where trust in governance is built on efficiency, transparency, and inclusiveness,” he said.
“Together, we are building a nation where every identity counts and every citizen matters.”
Earlier, the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, underscored the critical role of a secure identity system in national development, commending President Tinubu for deploying technology to address long-standing governance and security challenges.
“Your Excellency, you are solving tomorrow’s problems with technology. Every nation that desires to be efficient must first build systems that can identify, authenticate, and secure its citizens,” the Minister said.
In her remarks, the Director-General of NIMC, Engr. (Dr.) Abisoye Coker-Odusote, explained that the NINAuth App will eliminate multiple data ownership and provide real-time authentication for businesses and government institutions.
She revealed that NIMC has so far enrolled 126,717,316 individuals, with about 25 million of these recorded in the last two years, averaging 1.3 million verification hits per day.
