By Adedapo Adesanya
The number of National Identification Numbers (NINs) issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has crossed over 100 million.
According to the latest data from the NIMC, the issued NINs are now 101,013,279, indicating that in the last six months, the commission added 5,935,362 NINs to the database, compared with 95,077,917 as of January 2023.
This showed that in the last six months, there has been a 6.2 per cent growth.
NIMC informed that of the 101 million issued NIN, males have 57.3 million, which is equivalent to 56.76 per cent, while women have been issued 43.57 million or 43.2 per cent.
Further analysis of the June data shows that the highest cumulative enrollment figure of over 11 million was recorded in Lagos State, where 4.99 million females have been issued with NIN and six million men.
Kano is next with 8.9 million NINs (3.8 women and 5.1 men); Kaduna has 6.2 million (2.8 million women and 3.46 men), while Ogun has 4.2 million (two million women and 2.2 million men).
Oyo has 3.91 million NINs. Others are Katsina (3.46 million) and Abuja (3.4 million). Among the top recipient states are Rivers, with three million; Bauchi, 2.7 million and Delta (2.67 million).
According to NIMC, the last 10 states are Akwa Ibom with 1.71 million, Imo (1.7 million), Kogi (1.69 million), Enugu (1.62 million) and Yobe (1.57 million). Others are Taraba (1.45 million), Cross River (1.15 million), Ekiti (one million), Ebonyi (804,592) and Bayelsa state (635,277).
NIMC said regional figures indicated an almost equal distribution across the North and South regions of the country.
The commission also noted that in terms of diaspora registration, it has issued 447,414 identification numbers to Nigerians abroad, where 186,034 women have NINs and 261, 280 NINs going to men.