NIMC had made ID cards for 2,009,220 of the 104,163,072 people it registered, Auditor-General says; the 2026 Act cuts its card line to N1.79bn

By May 2024 the National Identity Management Commission had registered 104,163,072 people in its database and had produced Multipurpose Identity Cards for 2,009,220 of them, 1.93 per cent, according to the Auditor-General for the Federation. The finding is on page 637 of the Auditor-General's 2024 Annual Report on Non-compliance, Volume II, which also records that "Production of cards has been suspended since 2021". The Commission's answer, printed beneath the finding, is that "insufficient budget allocations over the years have impacted the production and issuance of the General Multi-Purpose Card". Vero Record set that answer against the Commission's own lines in the federal budget. The 2026 Appropriation Act gives "Personalization, Printing and Activation of Cards" N1,793,069,914, down from N2,561,528,448 in the 2025 Act as passed.

The query is Issue 10 in the Commission's chapter of the report, headed "Under-performance in production and issuance of multipurpose identity cards". It cites section 18(5) of the NIMC Act 2007, under which the Commission, on registering a person, "shall issue to the registered individual Multipurpose Identity Card with an Identity Number". The auditors' own subtraction is set out in the text: 104,163,072 registered less 2,009,220 cards leaves the 102,153,852 cards the report calls under-production. The report says the "abysmal performance in card production indicates weak internal controls, poor operational planning, and non-compliance with statutory obligations". The examination covered 1 January to 31 December 2023; the card count is stated as at May 2024.

The Commission's response is printed in full. It says the Commission "is aware of the provision in the Act and intends to comply", blames insufficient budget allocations, and adds: "The Commission is Currently working on the modalities for its production and issuance to Nigerian citizens and legal residents." The Auditor-General's evaluation is that the response "has been noted; however, it is deemed unsatisfactory", and that the finding stands until the recommendations are carried out. The recommendation is that the Director-General justify the shortfall to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly. The report does not say what a card costs to produce or how much was released for cards between 2021 and 2023, so it does not test the Commission's budget explanation either way.

The two Appropriation Acts list the Commission under code 0161005001, inside the vote of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. On page 363 of the 2025 Act as passed, its total allocation is N40,860,388,786: N14,479,517,659 for personnel, N749,442,001 for overheads and N25,631,429,126 for capital. Ten capital projects follow, all but one marked ongoing, and the card line, "Personalization, Printing and Activation of Cards", is one of them at N2,561,528,448.

On page 373 of the 2026 Act the total is N37,117,097,708: N18,425,655,318 for personnel, the same N749,442,001 for overheads and N17,942,000,389 for capital. The card line is N1,793,069,914 and is still marked ongoing. In both years it is 9.99 per cent of the Commission's capital vote. Between the two Acts personnel rose by N3,946,137,659 and capital fell by N7,689,428,737.

The fall in the card line was not aimed at cards. Each of the ten 2026 project figures is exactly 70 per cent of the 2025 figure for the same project code: power generating sets fell from N2,599,497,861 to N1,819,648,503, renovation of offices from N2,119,402,998 to N1,483,582,099, and cards from N2,561,528,448 to N1,793,069,914, a reduction of N768,458,534. The cut was applied across the whole capital list.

The largest single project in the Commission's list in both years is not, by its title, about cards or enrolment. It is "Provision of Infrastructure in Selected Locations in Kaduna": N5,000,000,000 in 2025, where it is marked new, and N3,500,000,000 in 2026, where it is marked ongoing. In 2026 it is 1.95 times the card line. The Act gives no further description of the project, and Vero Record did not establish what it covers or how it relates to the Commission's mandate.

Part of the record supports the Commission. The money set aside for cards is small against the size of the register: the 2026 line comes to about N17.21 for each of the 104,163,072 people the audit counts. It is also lower than in 2025, which is consistent with the Commission's statement that allocations have been insufficient. But an Appropriation Act shows what the National Assembly authorised, not what the Finance Ministry released or what the Commission spent, and neither Act shows whether any cards were printed under the line it carries.

The same chapter, pages 627 to 638, holds ten other queries. In Issue 11, on page 638, the auditors say the Commission reported N2,897,870,022.00 of other income in its 2023 financial statements. As a partially funded agency it should have remitted 50 per cent, N1,448,935,011.00, to the Consolidated Revenue Fund. It claimed to have remitted N821,587,359.65, which leaves N627,347,651.35, and "There was no official Treasury receipts presented as evidence of the claimed remittance". The Commission replied that it had "complied with the requirements and obtained the treasury receipts for all the amounts remitted which are attached as Appendix 5". The appendix is not reproduced in the published volume. As printed, the reply speaks to proof of the sums paid in, not to the N627,347,651.35 the auditors say was still due, and the Auditor-General again rated it unsatisfactory.

For the first eight of the eleven queries the report records the Commission's response as "No response." They include N1,500,000,000.00 paid to 141 staff on the Commission's payroll who, the report says, "failed to present themselves for verification exercise"; N1,357,746,213.45 remitted to third parties over and above the amounts deducted from staff salaries in 2021, 2022 and 2023; N72,089,286.64 more transferred to the payroll account for June 2023 (N1,893,868,716.78) than the gross salary calculated for that month (N1,821,779,430.14); and 54 unspecified transfers totalling N47,121,108.63. The report does not say why the Commission did not answer these queries.

An audit query is a request to account, not a finding of wrongdoing, and no court has ruled on any of these matters. The report itself attributes each anomaly to "weaknesses in the internal control system" at the Commission. It does not establish that the 141 staff do not exist, that money was lost, or that the Commission's budget explanation for the cards is wrong. Nor does it say whether card production resumed after May 2024.

Set side by side, the documents show a statutory duty to issue a card to every registered person, a register of 104,163,072 people in May 2024, cards for 2,009,220 of them, and production suspended since 2021 by the auditors' account. They show a budget line for card printing in both of the last two Acts, marked ongoing each time, that fell to N1,793,069,914 in 2026 as part of a uniform cut, and a line for unspecified infrastructure in Kaduna that is larger than it in both years.

What this rests on

Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation, 2024 Annual Report on Non-compliance (Vol. II), National Identity Management Commission, Issues 1 to 11, report pp.627 to 638 (PDF pp.192 to 203), period 1 January to 31 December 2023, read from the page images. 2025 Appropriation Act as passed, NIMC code 0161005001, pp.358 and 362 to 363. 2026 Appropriation Act, NIMC code 0161005001, pp.368 and 372 to 373. All read for this report. Arithmetic re-done: cards, 104,163,072 - 2,009,220 = 102,153,852 (matches the report); 2,009,220 / 104,163,072 = 1.93%. 2025 Act, N14,479,517,659 + N749,442,001 + N25,631,429,126 = N40,860,388,786; the ten projects N2,599,497,861 + N2,119,402,998 + N2,528,064,754 + N2,035,526,059 + N2,513,877,043 + N2,068,735,473 + N2,107,221,949 + N2,097,574,541 + N2,561,528,448 + N5,000,000,000 = N25,631,429,126. 2026 Act, N18,425,655,318 + N749,442,001 + N17,942,000,389 = N37,117,097,708; the ten projects N1,819,648,503 + N1,483,582,099 + N1,769,645,328 + N1,424,868,241 + N1,759,713,930 + N1,448,114,831 + N1,475,055,364 + N1,468,302,179 + N1,793,069,914 + N3,500,000,000 = N17,942,000,389. Each 2026 project figure divided by its 2025 figure = 0.7000 (cards N1,793,069,914 / N2,561,528,448 = 0.70000; Kaduna N3,500,000,000 / N5,000,000,000 = 0.7). Card line change N2,561,528,448 - N1,793,069,914 = N768,458,534. Card share of capital, N1,793,069,914 / N17,942,000,389 = 9.99%, N2,561,528,448 / N25,631,429,126 = 9.99%. Personnel N18,425,655,318 - N14,479,517,659 = N3,946,137,659; capital N25,631,429,126 - N17,942,000,389 = N7,689,428,737. Kaduna line / card line 2026, N3,500,000,000 / N1,793,069,914 = 1.95. Card line per registered person, N1,793,069,914 / 104,163,072 = N17.21. IGR, N2,897,870,022.00 x 50% = N1,448,935,011.00; N1,448,935,011.00 - N821,587,359.65 = N627,347,651.35 (matches the report). June 2023 payroll, N1,893,868,716.78 - N1,821,779,430.14 = N72,089,286.64 (matches the report).

What this does not establish

Whether card production resumed after May 2024, and how many cards exist today. How much of the 2025 card line, or of earlier card lines, was released or spent; Appropriation Acts show authorisations, not releases. What a card costs to produce, and so whether the budget lines could have met the statutory duty. Whether the 104,163,072 registrations are all unique living persons. What the Kaduna infrastructure project is. Whether the Budget Office's January 2026 repeal and re-enactment of the 2025 Act changed the Commission's lines; the figures used are from the 2025 Act as passed. The contents of the Commission's Appendix 5 of treasury receipts, which the published volume does not reproduce. Whether the 141 staff exist and are entitled to their pay; the report says only that they did not present themselves for verification. The 2024 Appropriation Act's card line was not checked. The Commission was not contacted for this report; its responses are given as the Auditor-General printed them. An audit query is not a finding of wrongdoing, and nothing in this report suggests that any person committed an offence.