Vice President Kashim Shettima on Wednesday declared that Nigeria’s digital transformation under President Bola Tinubu has reached an unprecedented level, praising sweeping reforms in the country’s identity management system and the ongoing restructuring of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
Speaking while receiving the Director General of NIMC, Engr. Abisoye Odusote, and members of the commission’s management team at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Shettima said the administration’s reforms would establish a sovereign Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) capable of driving secure digital governance and improving service delivery across the country.
The Vice President credited the progress to the enactment of the NIMC Act 2026, describing it as a landmark legislation that would reposition Nigeria’s identity ecosystem and accelerate the transition from paper-based government processes to secure digital administration built on robust trust architectures.
He commended Odusote for what he described as her exceptional leadership in transforming NIMC from a database custodian into Nigeria’s foundational digital authority within a short period.
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According to Shettima, the achievements recorded by the commission are rare and deserve recognition, urging the agency’s management to continue supporting the Director General’s reforms while embracing more technology-driven solutions to advance the Renewed Hope Agenda.
He said the Tinubu administration is implementing bold reforms across critical sectors, including education, healthcare, financial inclusion and digital governance, with the aim of delivering lasting benefits to Nigerians.
Earlier, Odusote thanked President Tinubu for signing the NIMC Bill into law, describing the legislation as a major turning point for Nigeria’s digital identity framework.
She said the new law enables seamless communication among government databases, allowing citizens to access public services more efficiently while strengthening national digital identity management.
The NIMC Director General disclosed that the Nigerian Immigration Service has fully integrated the National Identification Number (NIN) into the issuance and renewal of passports, describing the NIN as the country’s single source of truth for identity verification.
She added that insurance firms, financial institutions and several government agencies have already been integrated into the evolving national digital public infrastructure, enhancing identity verification and service delivery.
President Tinubu recently signed the NIMC Act 2026 into law, replacing the 2007 legislation with a modern legal framework designed to establish a sovereign digital public infrastructure, strengthen national control over digital trust systems and reduce dependence on foreign identity infrastructure.

