The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) will soon deploy officials to Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) centres nationwide to harmonise citizens’ data collection.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this on Wednesday when he received the NIMC management team at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

Yakubu noted that both agencies hold the two largest biometric databases in Nigeria — with INEC managing voter records and NIMC responsible for the general citizens’ register. He stressed the need for closer collaboration to create a unified national database.

“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.

He added that in the future, the voters’ register could simply draw from the NIMC database, making it possible for citizens to vote from any location in the country, instead of being tied to their original registration centres.

Yakubu explained that the collaboration had already been piloted in Anambra State between July 8 and 20, 2025, and would now be scaled up nationwide. This, he said, would allow citizens to register as voters while simultaneously enrolling for the National Identification Number (NIN).

“We welcome this partnership with NIMC, which aligns with our commitment to strengthen electoral activities through institutional collaboration,” the INEC Chairman said.