The Federal Government is asking for yet another 12-month extension of Nigeria’s $430 million digital identity project, with about $196m of the financing still undisbursed and National Identification Number issuance 59 million short of target.
According to The PUNCH on Wednesday, the details are in a World Bank restructuring paper dated October 22, 2026, on the bank’s website.
If approved, the extension would shift the closing date of the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project from December 31, 2026 to December 31, 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 first due to close in June 2024, but it later received a six-month extension and then another two-year extension.
The PUNCH’s analysis of the report showed that about $196m, or 45.6 per cent of the financing, had not been disbursed after total disbursements hit roughly $234m.
“The overall project disbursement rate inclusive of co-financiers stands at approximately $234m or 54.4 per cent,” the bank stated.
The financing is made up of $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 spans all three financiers, although the report’s financing summary separately puts the International Development Association’s undisbursed portion at $18.83m.
The project was approved in February 2020 and became effective in December 2021, with the goal of widening access to identification and services through a secure and inclusive national identity system.
As of September 30, 2026, about 121 million people had been issued NINs against a target of 180 million, leaving a gap of 59 million.
The figure is roughly 84 million higher than the baseline, but the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) would have to speed up enrolment significantly to reach 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.
That translates to a 160 per cent rise in monthly enrolment.
The bank also drew a line between enrolment records and successfully generated NINs, noting that more than 140 million enrolments had been logged by September 14, but only 121 million had passed biometric and demographic validation and duplicate checks.
Women and children are also behind their targets. As of June, 40.4 million women and girls held NINs against a target of 79 million, while 26.3 million children under 16 had NINs against a target of 60.83 million.
The report pointed to unpaid enrolment partners as another obstacle, saying the billing system must generate audited payment reports to allow 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 starting school enrolment by December 2026.
According to the report, the ward campaign has produced 10 million NINs since March.
A major reason for the extension request is the delay in replacing NIMC’s current technology with the National Identity Management System 2.0.
The contract was signed on September 15, 2026 after a lengthy procurement process.
Implementation, which would normally take about 18 months, has been squeezed into 15 months, with full deployment and data migration scheduled for December 15, 2027.
The new platform is designed to replace fragmented proprietary systems with an open-source system that improves capacity, interoperability and data protection.
NINAuth was launched in May 2025, but the project’s digital authentication targets remain unmet until it is integrated into the new platform.
The bank cautioned that if it does not extend its involvement, the other financiers will also stop implementation.
“If the project is not extended by WBG, all other co-financiers will also close,” it stated.
