A Bank Verification Number (BVN) to open an account; a National Identification Number (NIN) to access public services; a Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) to perform your civic duty; and if you’re behind a wheel, a VIO clearance or risk fines. Now, even the NDLEA wants a biometric record. 

Unlike many developed countries where identification systems are integrated and citizen data is protected by strong privacy laws, Nigeria’s identity space is fragmented and duplicative. 

Countries like Estonia and Sweden use a single digital ID for banking, healthcare, and voting, while others like the UK, leveraging National Insurance Number, and the U.S. limit biometric collection and ensure data transparency.

In Nigeria, however, citizens must enrol separately for multiple IDs, usually submitting the same biometric data to different agencies with little coordination or oversight. 

This lack of interoperability creates inefficiency and also exposes personal data to greater risks, without giving citizens control over how their information is used.

Welcome to Nigeria’s identity maze, where every agency wants your face, but none can protect or guarantee what happens to it. There is saturation without structure.

A Nation of IDs, Not Citizens

Nigeria’s identity industry is an administrative overgrowth. Thirteen major identity systems currently operate across the country, each usually overlapping, and rarely integrated. 

As of July 2025, over 121 million Nigerians have registered for the NIN. But fewer than 60% of them enjoy reliable access to the public services that required registration in the first place.

The BVN, launched by the Central Bank of Nigeria and managed by NIBSS, has reached 64.8 million enrolments, despite Nigeria having over 231 million active bank accounts. 

The logic behind BVN was straightforward; tie every account to a unique identity. Yet banking access in rural communities is still sporadic at best and exploitative at worst.

The problem isn’t a lack of data, it’s that the data isn’t working.

The Cost of Being Counted

Every agency now wants to scan your fingerprint, snap your photo, and save your biodata. But when Nigerians need help, from resolving SIM reactivation to correcting a simple name mismatch, they face endless queues, crashing systems, and opaque processes.

Between 2023 and 2025, more than 430 cases of identity mismatches were reported, many leading to lost access to funds or public benefits. Even more troubling, over 6,000 foreign nationals, mainly from Niger, were found in the NIN database, leading to both security concerns and doubts about data accuracy and oversight.

In contrast, the NDLEA has taken biometric data collection to a new level, establishing a registry of over 59,000 inmates while simultaneously reporting 14 million Nigerians as drug abuse victims. The question arises: is the growing pool of personal data being used to rehabilitate and support people or simply to monitor and catalogue them?

Where is the Protection?

Despite the enormous volume of sensitive data being collected, Nigeria’s Data Protection Act is still largely toothless. The NDPR, the earlier framework, was a step in the right direction, but enforcement has been inconsistent. 

Citizens have no clear right to see, correct, or delete their own records. Inter-agency data sharing happens without transparency. Cybersecurity protocols are either absent or rudimentary.

We’re storing millions of records, but infrastructure is still vulnerable to basic breaches. Most systems lack end-to-end encryption. User passwords are often poorly protected. Some databases are hosted on outdated servers. It’s like building a bank vault with cardboard and asking citizens to trust it.

The Human Impact: A New Kind of Exclusion

When people are denied access to healthcare, banking, or education because their biometric records are “not found,” that’s not just a technical failure, but institutional abandonment. 

People are being locked out of essential services simply because data silos don’t talk to each other, and there’s no central accountability.

The most vulnerable groups, those in rural areas, the elderly, and women in informal economies, are being excluded from a digital society that claims to be inclusive. The language of technology hides the truth: you can now be poor, invisible, and digitally invalid.

From Data Capture to Digital Control

There’s a deeper issue at play. Nigeria’s identity obsession is starting to look less like governance and more like control. Identity is no longer a right, it’s a barrier. 

Government agencies claim they need these systems to improve service delivery, tackle crime, or manage welfare. But without integration, transparency, and security, what we have instead is a massive surveillance infrastructure, waiting to be abused.

We’re not just becoming citizens of a data state, we’re becoming profiles, without the power to decide how we’re represented or what happens to our information.

What Needs to Change?

Nigeria’s current course is unsustainable. We need more than another government committee or press release.

• A unified identity architecture must be built, where one ID can serve multiple purposes across verified agencies.
• Data security regulations must be enforced with real consequences for leaks or misuse.
• A fully empowered, independent Data Protection Authority should be in place to oversee how information is collected, stored, and shared.
• Citizens must be given data access rights, including the right to correct, challenge, or delete personal information.
• Most importantly, digital systems should enhance access, not deny it.

Conclusion: The Person Is the Point

We cannot continue to build an identity system where the data matters more than the people it’s meant to serve. Nigerians are not spreadsheets. We are not QR codes or fingerprints or poorly formatted PDFs. We are individuals who deserve dignity, privacy, and trust in our institutions.

Until the government stops treating digital identity as a checkbox and starts treating it as a responsibility, we will continue to live in a country where you exist only if the system agrees, and the system is sometimes wrong.

However, reports from voters in different collection centres across the country revealed that some validly registered voters were informed by the INEC officials that their PVCs were not available; while some others were asked to return on a later day beyond the deadline or after the election to collect their PVCs.

This is a breach of the Electoral Act 2022 which mandates INEC in Section 16(1) to design, print and issue voter’s cards to voters whose names appear in the register of voters. INEC also, had further committed to and promised that everyone registered and, in their database, will have their PVC provided and available for collection.

The emphasis on a deadline for collection is an indirect disenfranchisement of validly registered voters whose PVCs are not available due to INEC’s administrative lapses. Denying these voters their right to vote due to a failure on the part of INEC is unacceptable.

And to be clear, this is not only a problem in Lagos. Citizens have provided reports from Abuja, Rivers, Delta, Anambra, Imo, Ondo, Nasarawa, Akwa Ibom, Kaduna, Borno, Sokoto, Ogun, Kano, & Kwara.

We also note the concern of the students who registered at home while tertiary institutions were shut down for over 8 months. According to INEC, 40% of the 9,518,188 newly registered voters are students. If they registered at home and are now at school, INEC must ensure they can pick up their cards in the least expensive way possible.

Reclaim Naija has received hundreds of calls and texts from its observers across the country about these challenges. With six episodes of Twitter Spaces and three Instagram Lives with different INEC officials; in addition to reports submitted through its www.rsvp.ng Complaints Portal, EiE Nigeria has supported over 10,000 voters through this PVC Collection process.

Given the reported challenges, we ask that INEC do the following:

1. Inform Nigerians if it is still printing cards and when all the cards for registered voters will be available for collection.
2. Extend PVC Collection to ensure that everyone whose cards were not found are reprinted, and there is a clear process for them to pick up the cards.
3. Work with the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) to ensure that there are no classes or exams the week before elections so students can go home to vote.
4. Communicate with newly registered voter’s especially students when the PVCs are ready.
5. Create a dedicated desk for civil society organisations, media and citizens to escalate the issues being observed for quick resolution.

The engine to drive this process is clear and proactive information sharing from INEC. There are high expectations for this election and INEC can not be seen to be deliberately or inadvertently disenfranchising certain groups of people.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!

He made this disclosure while meeting with stakeholders in Abuja.

“I am pleased to announce that the movement of electoral materials to various locations across the country has been completed,” he stated.

According to him, the Commission has also inspected each machine in our offices around the country to confirm its functionality.

“The next step is to conduct field tests across the country involving actual voters. For this reason, and in readiness for nationwide deployment, the Commission is conducting a mock accreditation of voters similar to what was done ahead of the recent Ekiti and Osun State Governorship elections.”

Prof. Yakubu said the next line of action is to train officials while strengthening ongoing consultations with stakeholders will be intensified.

“Airlifting and delivery of sensitive materials to States of the Federation has gone far. Accreditation of national and international observers and the media is being finalized.

“Critical service providers in the area of transportation have reassured us of their commitment to efficient logistics for the movement of materials and personnel to various locations while the security agencies have reaffirmed their readiness for the election.”

PVC Collection

According to the INEC Chairman, the Commission is aware that there are a few issues to be addressed. One of them is the ongoing collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs).

He said the Commission is encouraged by the determination of registered voters nationwide to collect their PVCs and the actual level of collection so far.

“For instance, in Lagos State, which has the highest number of registered voters in the country, the Commission delivered 940,200 PVCs from the recent voter registration exercise (June 2021 to July 2022) for both new registrants and requests for transfer and replacement of cards.

As of yesterday Thursday 26th January 2023, 839,720 PVCs have been collected representing 89.3% of the total figure.”

General elections will be held in Nigeria on 25 February 2023 to elect the President and Vice President and members of the Senate and House of Representatives

The promotion will apply on weekdays between 8 am-5 pm.

The announcement comes at a time when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has highlighted that over 20 million PVCs are yet to be collected nationwide, out of 84 million registered PVCs.

This campaign is expected to incentivize riders to collect their permanent voter cards, for them to take part in the General Elections.

“We are proud to play a role in helping riders access convenient, affordable and reliable trips at such an important time for the country. We believe that mobility shouldn’t be a barrier in allowing people to take part in such an important civic exercise as voting in the General Elections. We hope as many riders as possible will take advantage of promotional fares to collect their PVCs,” says Tope Akinwumi, Country Manager, Uber Nigeria.

The Independent National Elections Commission announced that the collection of PVC cards would start at INEC offices in each of the 774 local government areas countrywide from the 12th of December.

Uber is passionate about helping people move around their city with ease and as a result, never stops raising the bar on safety to ensure that riders and drivers feel safe whenever they take a trip on the platform.

NIN

The Nigerian government had given the directive for the implementation and commencement of the exercise in December 2020, as part of the administration’s security and social policies.

President Muhammadu Buhari had also directed all telcos to strictly enforce the policy on all SIMs issued (existing and new) in Nigeria.

Statistics indicate that Nigeria has linked over 85 million National Identification Numbers (NINs) to Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards on the National Identity Management System (NIMS), as at June 2022.

How to Link NIN?

Okay, to link your NIN to your Mobile Numbers using the NIMC Mobile ID App, follows these steps:

• Open the app and log in with your security PIN.
• Tap on ‘My Devices’ button on the bottom right part of your dashboard on the app.
• Tap on ‘Add Mobile Number’ and input the mobile phone number you wish to link.
• Next input the OTP sent to that mobile phone number.
• You can link up to seven (7) mobile phone numbers.

Shares

The Series 1 offer for sale of 575 million shares held by the MTN Group in MTN Nigeria (the Offer) to Nigerian investors broke the internet this year.

In fact, the offer was oversubscribed by 139.47%, and MTN had to prepare additional 86.25m shares.

The Offer was implemented by way of a bookbuild to qualified institutional investors and a fixed price offer to retail investors.

Key Points

• Offer was 139.47% oversubscribed, activating the allocation of an additional 86.25 million shares
• Retail shareholders receive full allotment despite over-subscription
• Institutional shareholders under the Bookbuild were pro-rated as a result of the over-subscription
• 114,938 new CSCS accounts were created representing new market participants
• Approximately 76% of successful applicants via digital platform are women, and 85% are under age 40

This might have triggered the interest in the search for ‘How to buy Shares’?

PVC online registration

Nigerians are preparing to go to the polls from February 25, 2023. Interestingly, since the 2019 elections, about 20 million Nigerians have turned 18 and are now eligible to vote.

While every Nigerian citizen has the right to vote, logistical obstacles can prevent them from exercising it. One of the most important steps in the voting process can be taken right now, though, and that’s obtaining a Permanent Voters Card (PVC). Thus, many Nigerian thronged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) portal to register for the PVCs.

This process has since ended as collection of the PVCs starts nationwide today 12-12-2022. So, throughout the period of the registration many Nigerians searched on Google ‘How to Register PVC online’.

Top 10 trending “How to” general

1. How to link NIN?
2. How to buy shares?
3. How to register for PVC online?
4. How to remove the rotoscope filter?
5. How to maintain facial health by controlling the type of food consumed?
6. How to create an NFT?
7. How to upgrade to iOS 16?
8. How to hide an app on an iPhone?
9. How to hide number?
10. How to write an application letter for a job?

Google Trends

This is a publicly available tool that displays relative search volume across geographies, time periods and queries that people want to know about.

Google Trends lets you dive deep into what’s popular on the Internet — you can compare search data by time, location, and between queries.

It also offers category filtering, top and rising searches, and geographic “heat maps”. The main two categories of searches are: ‘Trending’ and ‘Most Searched’.

He said the provision of assistive devices for PWDs is now a legal requirement as far as resources permit.

“We have been deploying these assistive devices in our offseason elections.
We will continue to deploy technologies to protect the integrity of the electoral process.”

He also debunked reports that INEC was not going to upload election reports on real-time as fake news.

“The story emanating from a section of the media that the Commission has decided to jettison the uploading of the PU level results in real time on Election Day should be disregarded as fake news.

He said Commission will upload polling unit level results and citizens will have access to those results in real time as we upload.

“This innovation was introduced by the Commisson and the Commission cannot turn around to undermine itself. This technology has come to stay.”

Across the land, prospective voters find that the simple act of registration is akin to climbing a mountain or reprising the walk to Golgotha doing the Stations of the Cross at the Awhum monastery and praying ground. It is tasking. 

Technology for Nigerian MDAs is a slow coach that elongates rather than shortens the journey. It only adds layers to the bureaucratic red tape rather than eliminates it. It is a curious contradiction procured at such a high cost. 

It is immaterial whether it is the Independent National Electoral Commission, Federal Road Safety Commission, or the Passport Office run by the Immigration Department of the Ministry of Interior. Their application of technology defeats speed and quick response as some of the attributes of technology deployment. 

Compare and contrast the trajectory of procuring any vital documents entrusted to these agencies and the one managed by the Bankers Committee. You will walk into a bank, request an ATM card, and fill out the forms with your data. They capture it with your biometrics, and you get an ATM card useable in Nigeria and overseas. 

INEC claims it will take a minimum of three months to process and print a Voters Card after you have done pre-registration on its portal or physical capture at the centres. You have provided all the information. Why does it have to take that long? 

Ditto for the Road Safety Commission with Drivers’ Licenses. Ditto the Passport Office. Pray, what are technology’s definitions and applications for these agencies? From where do they procure the tech platforms that make them such slow coaches? Who prescribes or engineers the platforms that deliver such snail speeds in the name of technology and at such humungous cost? 

INEC asks you to register online. Some succeed, others do not. However, it is the start of a lengthy bureaucratic journey.

Others go to an INEC Voter Registration Centre to commence the 40-day trip of a four-hour exercise. Where does automation lead to more processing points but in Nigerian MDAs? What sense does it make? 

 The upsurge in voter registration requests has exposed the deficiency of the INEC platform. It cannot cope, leading to a constant source of irritation. INEC has now offered the palliative of 209 additional machines. It will not suffice. 

I join the many voices calling on INEC to extend the exercise by at least one month. INEC must register all newly motivated citizens to be part of Nigeria’s democracy. 

I invite INEC and the other MDAs to ask the implementation agency of the BVN and ATM Cards Scheme to take them by their hands and guide them to doing it. Before the alibis come tumbling out, note that you can use your ATM cards in all the 774 LGAs. You can use it globally. 

INEC should emulate the BVN and ATMs of the banking industry. The Nigerian Interbank Settlement System runs the additional security feature of the Bank Verification Number, linking the BVN to each ATM card. 

“BVN verifies the customers’ identity seamlessly across multiple and interoperable electronic platforms. It searches the BVN database to display relevant information about an individual. The bio-data includes names, phone numbers, addresses, and dates of birth.

“BVN is a unique identification number that can verify across all financial institutions in Nigeria. It maps a customer’s BVN to the individual’s biological traits: * Finger Print * Signature * Facial photograph captured at the point of enrollment. 

Today, “The BVN database is the most reliable and comprehensive data source in the Nigeria Financial Industry warehousing over 38 million unique BVNs, which are intrinsic to every individual whose profile it has captured”, the BVN website states.

Note that with the BVN and ATM, you can transact from your phone anywhere. INEC vends the falsehood that you must go to a physical location to cast your vote. In 2022 with all the tech platforms available in Nigeria and to all humanity? 

For INEC to sell a credible claim of electronic voting, citizens should register anywhere and vote from anywhere based on that registration. That is the beauty of accurate technology that delivers a secure platform. With what INEC offers, expect a deceitful “electronic voting”. INEC can and must do better for us all.