Nigeria, Aug. 1 -- For many years, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) was a monument to bureaucratic inertia - a symbol of Nigeria's perennial struggle with public sector dysfunction. Queues that snaked for hours, agents demanding illegal fees, frequent data errors, and a system riddled with inefficiencies made the process of obtaining a National Identification Number (NIN) feel like a gauntlet. For millions of Nigerians, securing their own identity became a frustrating ordeal - one that mirrored the broader failures of governance in a country struggling to digitise.

But today, that narrative is shifting - quietly, methodically, and, increasingly, decisively.

In just under two years, NIMC has undergone a significant tran...