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This map shows the number of national identity registrations by State, mapped against the level of financial exclusion.

Financially excluded respondents with a high likelihood of poverty based on the World Bank’s Poverty Probability Index, are considerably more likely not to have National Identity, than respondents who are banked indicating a strong correlation between the communities without National Identity and those who are financially excluded.

There is a clear link between the number of enrolment centres in a State, and the number of people who have registered for National Identity Numbers. The more enrolment centres, the higher the registrations.

There is a clear cluster of low national identity ownership in the South South and South East, along with interesting spikes in identity ownership in the sample in Zamfara, Borno and Adamawa which may be indicative of specific vulnerable communities in the sample, such as Internally Displaced People.

Respondents in Urban areas are considerably more likely to have a National Identity Number than those in rural areas.

More than 89% of respondents with a university degree or above are likely to be financially included, while only 29% of respondents who only complete primary school are likely to be financially included. The lower your level of education, the less likely you have a bank account.

Respondents’ education levels are progressively higher for urban communities than for rural communities.

Respondents are generally more likely to have national ID the higher their level of education. Gender gaps exist in ownership of National ID at every level of the education system, with significant gaps for those with no education, incomplete primary education and in-complete post university education.

While Nigeria’s banked population has more than doubled since 2008, the percentage of respondents who are excluded from the financial system is progressing too slowly to achieve current Federal Government targets and the proportion of informally included respondents remains high.

In a continued drive to enforce and accelerate NIN enrollment, NIMC and the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy on April 4, 2022, took the decision to disconnect mobile lines yet to link their NIN to their SIM cards. This immediately restricted outgoing call services of more than 30 million Nigerian mobile lines. Our graph shows that 73.1% of mobile phone owners in the poorest segment of society did not have a NIN in 2020; and therefore more likely to be directly affected by the restrictions on mobile phone use. This confirms that mobile phone ownership does not indicate NIN ownership and it is progressively exacerbated as you get poorer.