The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has entered into a strategic partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to harmonise Nigeria’s identity and voter registration systems, in a move aimed at strengthening the country’s electoral integrity.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, announced the collaboration on Wednesday during a visit by NIMC Director-General, Engr. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, and her delegation to the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
Yakubu described the alliance as a game-changer for Nigeria’s electoral process, noting that INEC and NIMC jointly maintain the two largest biometric databases in the country—INEC for electoral data and NIMC for general citizen identification.
The collaboration was further highlighted in a statement posted on NIMC’s official X (formerly Twitter) handle.
“The DG/CEO of NIMC, Engr. (Dr) Abisoye Coker-Odusote, alongside the management team, held a joint press conference with INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on the collaboration between the two agencies on using a credible digital identity token— the National Identification Number (NIN)—to strengthen the nation’s electoral system,” the statement read.
According to Coker-Odusote, the integration of NIN into INEC’s Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise will help ensure that every eligible voter is uniquely and verifiably identified.
“This partnership is a strategic alliance for national progress,” she said. “NIMC is committed to providing INEC with secure, up-to-date, and verifiable identity data to support voter verification, while also ensuring data privacy and protection in line with national laws and global best practices.”
The initiative aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which emphasizes institutional reform, transparency, and digital transformation across government sectors.
INEC has in recent years sought to reduce voter fraud and improve the credibility of elections through technology, including the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). The integration of NIN is expected to further enhance those efforts by ensuring a more accurate and tamper-proof voter register.
