Business
FG secured $45.5m World Bank funding for NIN
Nigeria’s federal government secured $45.5m funding from the World Bank for National Identity Management Commission as part of the Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) project.
The World Bank’s implementation report said the funds were disbursed in several tranches between December 2021 and April 2024, with disbursement still ongoing.
The bank approved $430m for the project in February 2020, with the $45.5 million allocated, accounting for about 10.5 per cent of the total project cost.
The project is co-financed by the World Bank’s International Development Association ($115m), the French Agency for Development ($100m), and the European Investment Bank ($215m).
“This will enable people in Nigeria, especially marginalised groups, to access welfare-enhancing services. The project will also enhance the ID system’s legal and technical safeguards to protect personal data and privacy,” the World Bank said in a statement.
The initiative aims to increase the number of Nigerians enrolled in the National Identification Number system.
Despite the project’s June 1, 2024, deadline to enrol 148 million Nigerians for NIN, the country remains behind schedule.
As of May, the number of NINs had risen to 107.34 million from the 104 million recorded in December 2023, according to NIMC Director General Abisoye Coker-Odusote.
The World Bank has termed the project’s progress as ‘moderately satisfactory,’ with NIMC reporting that 107.3 million NINs had been issued by April this year.
