• Registration still 32% short of World Bank’s 148m June target• Insecurity defies NIN-SIM linkage as kidnapping festers• Experts want FG to fix economy, create jobs to curb insecurityDespite efforts made to close the gap, the disparity between the number of issued National Identification Numbers (NINs) and the country’s population figure remains extreme, raising concerns about the country’s ability to meet crucial milestones. This comes as the NIN enrolment figure and distribution pattern raise questions on the credibility of the population estimates, which the National Population Commission (NPC) pegged at near 218 million last year. Some experts have begun to doubt if the country’s actual population has not been overestimated, especially with childbirth control adoption gaining traction in the southern part of the country in recent years and the north still holed up in high infant mortality. As of December, there were 104.16 million issued NINs, a figure that is less than 50 per cent of the estimated population of the country. This suggests that there is still a gap of 113.8 million.

Source: The Guardian February 13, 2024 21:16 UTC