Nigeria NIMC audit: procurement findings and follow-up

What the audit found

The 2015 federal audit report recorded a ₦16.5 million VSAT contract for NIMC. It said full payment was made on 31 March 2014, four months before the stated contract-award date of 1 August 2014 ¹.

The report said the file did not contain evidence of advertising, a performance bond or an execution report. It recorded tender and procurement-planning committee approval dated 19 May 2014, after the payment date ¹.

The 2018 report examined another contract and recorded an initial payment of ₦103,408,992.45. The audit treated that payment as 45 percent of the contract price, compared with a 15 percent mobilisation term, and found no interim performance certificate in the file ².

The 2018 report recommended that the director-general account for and refund ₦229,797,761. It separately recorded goods worth ₦4,784,581.15 bought directly by staff above the stated procurement threshold ².

The official response

The 2018 report states that NIMC did not respond before the report was completed. The Auditor-General repeated the recovery recommendation and called for evidence of the work performed ².

The later NIMC enrolment dashboard is an operational update, not a response to the findings. It reports more than 121 million unique enrolment records at 30 June 2025 ³.

Parliament

The Auditor-General's annual reports form part of federal legislative scrutiny. The cited findings appear in the reports for 2015 and 2018, with the audited body's response or absence of a response recorded beside the audit position ^1,2.

No separate National Assembly committee report closing these NIMC items was identified in the official sources reviewed. The audit recommendations should not be read as a published parliamentary recovery decision.

Follow-up audits and recommendations

The official reports reviewed do not provide a recommendation-by-recommendation closure table for the cited NIMC items. The recovery recommendation in the 2018 report remains the clearest published audit action ².

A June 2025 World Bank procurement plan for the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project listed later NIMC works and goods activities. It recorded a data-centre and disaster-recovery refurbishment package as under implementation ⁴. This is evidence of later programme activity, not proof that the earlier audit findings were closed.

Courts, tribunals and investigations

No court judgment deciding the procurement findings in the 2015 or 2018 audit reports was identified in the official sources reviewed. The audit reports make administrative findings and recommendations ^1,2.

The cited records do not establish that any named person committed a crime. They document payment, procurement and record-keeping issues for audit follow-up ^1,2.

Where it stands now

NIMC's June 2025 dashboard reports more than 121 million enrolments, led by Lagos State with more than 12.9 million records ³. The identity system and its related procurement programme continued after the audit periods.

The World Bank's June 2025 procurement plan lists active, signed and cancelled activities under the digital identification project ⁴. No official source reviewed links those activities to closure of the older Auditor-General recommendations.

Timeline