President Bola Tinubu has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to building a credible, secure, and verifiable national identity management system, describing it as essential to Nigeria’s developmental goals.
Speaking at the launch of the NINAuth App on Thursday at the State House in Abuja, Tinubu said the new digital, mobile-based identity authentication application, developed by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), represents a major step in strengthening Nigeria’s digital public infrastructure.
According to a statement by his spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, the president said his government is leveraging technology to improve efficiency, transparency, and accountability in governance, adding 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,” Tinubu said. “This innovation marks yet another milestone in our collective pursuit of a digitally empowered Nigeria.”
He explained that the app would place Nigeria among the world’s technologically advanced nations by providing secure and inclusive access to services and opportunities, while maintaining strict data protection and national security standards.
“A credible and inclusive National Identity Management System is fundamental to our national development goals. It supports financial inclusion, strengthens social welfare delivery, enhances our security architecture, and ensures accurate population data for evidence-based planning,” Tinubu stated.
The president urged citizens to embrace the new technology, emphasizing that the future of governance depends on efficiency, transparency, and inclusiveness.
“Let us all embrace this new era. Let us protect it, use it responsibly, and ensure that it serves as a bridge connecting our people, institutions, and aspirations for a more prosperous nation. Together, we are building a nation where every identity counts and every citizen must matter,” he added.
Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, commended the president for prioritizing technological solutions in governance, describing identity as the backbone of national security and service delivery.
“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,” Tunji-Ojo said.
The Director General of NIMC, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, explained that the NINAuth App would eliminate multiple data ownership by individuals and provide real-time verification for businesses and government agencies.
She disclosed that NIMC had enrolled 126,717,316 individuals so far, with about 25 million of those registrations completed within the last two years, resulting in an average of 1.3 million verification hits per day.