When Engr. Abisoye Coker Odusote, Executive Chairman of National Identity Management Commission issued a statement on NIN verification service restoration, Nigerians finally breathed a sigh of relief. The announcement, made on a Friday in July 2025, confirmed that the week‑long technical maintenance that crippled identity checks across banks, telecoms and government agencies was complete.
The news broke in a press release supplied to Vanguard newspaper and was first reported by Emmanuel Elebeke from Abuja. "NIMC wishes to inform the general public that the recent technical maintenance has been completed and all services have been restored," the commission said.
Since the NIMC Act No. 23 of 2007 created the agency, the National Identification Number (NIN) has become the backbone of Nigeria’s digital identity ecosystem. With roughly 206 million citizens needing a NIN for anything from opening a bank account to registering a SIM card, the database functions like the country’s social security system, but with a biometric twist.
Over the years, the commission has rolled out several upgrades – the General Multi‑Purpose Card (GMPC), a self‑service portal for data edits, and the recently launched NIN verification platform, NINAuth, which went live on 6 May 2025. The platform promises "secure and seamless Identity Authentication & Verification for all government services," a claim echoed by tech outlets such as TechAfricanNews on 5 August 2025.
In early July, NIMC began a scheduled system maintenance that was supposed to last a few days. Instead, an unexpected fault in the verification server farm caused the NINAuth API to go dark. Banks reported delayed customer onboarding, telecom operators struggled to process SIM swaps, and the federal Ministry of Finance could not validate contractor IDs for urgent procurements.
For many Nigerians, the impact felt personal: a small trader in Lagos could not cash out a loan; a university student in Kano was barred from registering for exams; a diaspora worker in London couldn’t update a name change. The outage highlighted how tightly woven the NIN is into everyday life.
On Friday, 26 July 2025, the commission’s statement confirmed that the servers were back online, the API endpoints were fully functional, and the self‑service portal resumed normal traffic. Within hours, major banks such as Zenith Bank and GTBank reported a 92 % restoration of verification requests.
Telecom giants MTN and Airtel also announced that SIM registration and swapping services were operating at “pre‑maintenance levels.” The government’s e‑procurement system, which relies on NIN checks for vendor eligibility, resumed processing pending bids.
The commission didn’t just flip a switch; it used the moment to remind citizens of the multiple channels now available for verification:
For businesses that need bulk verification, the NIMC MWS Mobile ID app continues to offer Peer‑to‑Peer (P2P) checks at a modest cost of one credit unit per profile.
Banking analysts called the swift restoration "a testament to NIMC’s crisis‑management protocols." Dr. Aisha Bello, a fintech researcher at the University of Lagos, noted that the outage "served as a stress test for Nigeria’s digital identity infrastructure, and the quick bounce‑back suggests the system is more resilient than many feared."
Telecom operators are now eligible to embed NIN verification directly into their SIM‑card registration workflows, a move that could reduce fraud by up to 30 % according to a Biometric Update report from August 2025. The commission’s zero‑tolerance policy on extortion and misconduct, highlighted on its corporate ethics page, reassures partners that the data handling procedures meet international standards.
In the public sphere, social media chatter turned upbeat within hours. One Abuja resident tweeted, "Finally! I can finish my loan paperwork without looping back to the bank. NIMC, you saved my day."
Even with services restored, the commission has outlined a roadmap for the next six months:
Stakeholders are watching closely because any hiccup could ripple through the broader economy. For now, the restored NIN verification service is a reminder that a nation’s identity system is as critical as its roads or power grid.
The service disruption lasted roughly one week, beginning in early July 2025 and ending with the restoration announcement on 26 July 2025.
Yes. The self‑service portal and the NIMC NameAuth app both allow name changes, gender corrections, and biometric updates without needing to visit an enrollment centre.
Businesses are advised to use the backup MWS Mobile ID app for peer‑to‑peer verification, which incurs a nominal credit‑unit fee per check, and to keep an eye on NIMC’s service status page for real‑time updates.
No. Telecom operators have confirmed that the NIN verification endpoint is fully functional, so new SIM registrations, swaps, or migrations can proceed without delay.
The platform was built with end‑to‑end encryption and complies with Nigeria’s data protection regulations. NIMC’s zero‑tolerance policy on data misuse adds an extra layer of assurance for users.
Grace Melville
October 10, 2025 AT 03:37Great news! The NIMC team handled the outage well 😊. If you need to verify your NIN, the NameAuth app is the quickest way.