The Federal Government has requested another 12-month extension of Nigeria’s $430 million digital identity project as approximately $196m of its financing remains undisbursed and National Identification Number (NIN) issuance trails the target by 59 million.
This is contained in a World Bank restructuring paper dated 22 October, 2026, obtained by The PUNCH from the bank’s website on Wednesday.
The proposed extension would move the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project’s closing date from 31 December, 2026, to 31 December, 2027.
“The proposed Level 2 restructuring seeks to extend the project closing date by 12 months, as requested by the Government on May 8, 2026,” the report stated.
“This would be the third closing date extension under this project since Board Approval in February 2020, for the cumulative period of 42 months (3.5 years).”
The project was originally scheduled to close in June 2024 before receiving a six-month extension and another two-year extension.
An analysis by The PUNCH showed that approximately $196m, representing 45.6 per cent of the financing, remained undisbursed after total disbursements reached about $234m.
“The overall project disbursement rate inclusive of co-financiers stands at approximately $234m or 54.4 per cent,” the bank stated.
The financing comprises $115m from the World Bank’s International Development Association, $100m equivalent from the French Development Agency and $215m equivalent from the European Investment Bank.
The undisbursed balance therefore covers all three financiers. The report’s financing summary separately puts IDA’s undisbursed balance at $18.83m.
Approved in February 2020 and effective from December 2021, the project seeks to expand access to identification and services through a secure, inclusive national identity system.
However, about 121 million people had received NINs by September 30, 2026, against the 180 million target, leaving a shortfall of 59 million.
Although this represents an increase of approximately 84 million from the baseline, NIMC must substantially accelerate enrolment to meet the target.
“NIMC reconfirmed the commitment to reach the target of 180 million noting that this would require an increase in monthly enrollment rates from the current average of 1.5 million to 3.9 million,” the report stated.
This implies a 160 per cent increase in monthly enrolment.
The bank also distinguished enrolment records from successfully generated NINs, noting that more than 140 million enrolments had been recorded by September 14, but only 121 million had completed biometric and demographic validation and duplicate checks.
Women and children remained behind their respective targets. As of June, 40.4 million women and girls had NINs against a target of 79 million, while 26.3 million children under 16 had NINs against 60.83 million.
The report identified unpaid enrolment partners as another constraint, stating that the billing system must produce audited payment reports to enable payments to partners “which have not been paid since January 2026.”
Other priorities include deploying 7,000 procured mobile devices by January 2027, training agents, expanding ward-level enrolment nationwide and beginning school enrolment by December 2026.
The ward campaign had generated 10 million NINs since March, according to the report.
A major reason for the extension is the delayed replacement of NIMC’s existing technology with the National Identity Management System 2.0.
The contract was signed on September 15, 2026, following lengthy procurement. Implementation, normally requiring approximately 18 months, was compressed into 15 months, with full deployment and data migration scheduled for December 15, 2027.
The new platform would replace fragmented proprietary systems with an open-source system designed to improve capacity, interoperability and data protection.
Although NINAuth was launched in May 2025, the project’s digital authentication targets remained unmet pending integration into the new platform.
The bank warned that failure to extend its involvement would also halt implementation by the other financiers.
“If the project is not extended by WBG, all other co-financiers will also close,” it stated.
Source: punchng.com
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