President Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to delivering a credible, secure, verifiable, and inclusive national identity management system, describing it as foundational to Nigeria’s development aspirations.
Speaking at the State House, Abuja, during the launch of the NINAuth App, a mobile-based identity authentication platform developed by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Tinubu said the innovation aligns with his administration’s push to leverage technology to improve efficiency, transparency, and accountability in governance.
He disclosed that all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) will soon be required to adopt the application 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 another milestone in our collective pursuit of a digitally empowered Nigeria,” he said.
Tinubu emphasised that modernising digital infrastructure is central to eliminating bottlenecks and ensuring that citizens can access essential services without bureaucratic delays.
The NINAuth App, he explained, positions Nigeria among technologically advanced nations by enabling seamless, secure, and inclusive access to public and private services while upholding strong data protection and national security standards.
“This way, we are simplifying access, reducing bureaucratic interference, and closing the gaps within which inefficiency and corruption thrive,” he noted.
According to the President, a robust national identity framework is critical to strengthening financial inclusion, improving social welfare delivery, enhancing security, and generating accurate population data for planning.
“With NINAuth, every citizen and legal resident will benefit from a unified National Identity Database, one that will power social programmes, improve electoral integrity, enhance healthcare access, and promote equitable distribution of our commonwealth,” he said.
Tinubu urged Nigerians to embrace the new application and commended NIMC for transforming identity management from a cumbersome bureaucratic process into a dynamic, technology-driven system aligned with global best practice.
“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.
“Let us all embrace this new era… Together, we are building a nation where every identity counts and every citizen must matter.”
In his remarks, the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, underscored the importance of digital identity to national development, saying the administration has demonstrated capacity to enhance security and bridge systemic gaps through technology.
“Every nation that desires to be efficient must first build systems that can identify, authenticate, and secure its citizens. Identity is not just an administrative requirement; it is the backbone of governance, national security, and service delivery,” he said.
Also speaking, Director General of NIMC, Engr. (Dr.) Abisoye Coker-Odusote, explained that the NINAuth App will eliminate multiple identity records and provide real-time verification for businesses and public institutions.
She noted that NIMC has so far enrolled 126,717,316 individuals, with about 25 million registrations recorded in the last two years, and an average of 1.3 million verification daily.
