Front-End Partners (FEPs) hired by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to enrol Nigerians for National Identification Numbers (NINs) have not been paid since January 2026, according to the World Bank.
The World Bank disclosed this in its October 2026 restructuring paper for Nigeria’s Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) project.
The paper flagged the unpaid fees as an operational issue that must be resolved to meet the target of 180 million NINs. As of September 30, 2026, about 121 million Nigerians had received NINs, leaving a shortfall of roughly 59 million.
Enrolment partners await payment
To help meet the enrolment target, the World Bank said NIMC’s billing system must produce audited payment reports so partners can be paid on time.
- “The billing system must generate audited FEP payment reports to enable timely NIN payments to FEPs, which have not been paid since January 2026,” the report stated.
Resolving the payment issue is one of seven activities NIMC must address to sustain enrolment and reach the 180 million target.
- Other priorities include launching the Learning Management System (LMS) to train and certify FEP enrolment agents, deploying 7,000 mobile devices procured under the project, and extending enrolment to schools and underserved communities.
The paper set October 31, 2026, as the deadline for making the LMS operational, and January 2027 for deploying the 7,000 devices with the enrolment module activated.
Monthly enrolment must rise to 3.9 million
During a September 2026 restructuring mission, NIMC reaffirmed that it needed to raise average monthly enrolment from 1.5 million to 3.9 million to meet the 180 million target, the World Bank said.
- The ward-level enrolment drive launched in March 2026 had generated 10 million new NINs by the assessment date. It aims to reach remote areas, locations with low enrolment, and disadvantaged groups.
- NIMC had also licensed about 365 FEPs, including mobile network operators, to conduct enrolment.
Further measures include working with the Ministry of Education to start school-level enrolment by December 2026, engaging local governments in communities with low enrolment, and partnering with social protection and health agencies to reach underserved populations.
NIMC previously said it had cleared arrears
The disclosure follows NIMC’s December 6, 2024, announcement that it had settled outstanding payments to FEPs for enrolments carried out between 2021 and 2024.
Nairametrics previously reported that NIMC’s Head of Corporate Communications, Kayode Adegoke, said the partners were hired in 2021 to expand NIN enrolment but had been paid for only one year of work.
- “However, the FEPs were only paid for one year of enrollment activities,” the statement said.
- NIMC described the earlier enrolment exercise as an interim arrangement before the World Bank-supported ID4D project began. It said the arrears covered enrolments successfully added to the database that resulted in NINs.
The commission said it settled those arrears following a revalidation exercise supported by the ID4D project and the World Bank.
