The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) have agreed to deepen collaboration on data harmonisation for citizen registration and identity management.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this on Wednesday while receiving the NIMC Director-General, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, and her management team at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

Yakubu explained that the two agencies hold Nigeria’s largest biometric databases—INEC for electoral purposes and NIMC for general citizen records. Their cooperation, he said, could eventually enable Nigerians to vote from any location in the country.

“Since the ultimate goal is to enrol every citizen with NIMC, we look forward to the day when your database will serve as the single source of truth for citizenship identification in Nigeria,” Yakubu said.

“When the time comes, the national register of voters may simply draw from the citizenship register, as is the case in many jurisdictions around the world. This may also enable citizens to vote in future elections from their preferred locations rather than only where they initially registered. To achieve this long-term goal, we will continue to deepen our collaboration with NIMC.”

He added that INEC and NIMC are working together to allow citizens to register for voter cards and National Identification Numbers (NINs) simultaneously during the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).

“It is in furtherance of this collaboration that NIMC is deploying its officials to some of our registration centres. This will provide Nigerians who have yet to enrol for the NIN an opportunity to do so,” he said.

Yakubu recalled that both agencies carried out a pilot exercise during the recent CVR in Anambra State between 8 and 20 July 2025 and are now set to expand it nationwide.

Earlier, NIMC Director-General Abisoye Coker-Odusote said the collaboration was in line with NIMC’s mandate to harmonise data across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

She noted that the effort would help create a trust-based system beneficial across sectors, particularly in voting, while ensuring transparency, accountability and fairness.

“This aligns with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, who is committed to promoting credible elections in Nigeria through a reliable identity system,” she said.

Coker-Odusote stressed the need to build public trust: “Our goal is to provide systems trusted by Nigerians. Ensuring that we deliver on this mandate in line with the will of the people is crucial.”

She added that NIMC’s immediate focus was to support INEC’s voter registration exercise by deploying its officials to registration centres nationwide.

Fielding questions from journalists on when Nigerians would have access to a single identity card for multiple purposes, she said the initiative was a work in progress and would be achieved in due course.