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By Bilkis Abdulraheem Lawal
For many Nigerian families, the death of a loved one marks the beginning of a painful and often prolonged struggle with government agencies, banks, pension administrators, and other institutions. Beyond grief, bereaved relatives are confronted with a maze of administrative procedures that can take months, or even years, to navigate.
Experts say the problem lies not only in cumbersome bureaucracy but also in the absence of interoperability between Nigeria’s death registration systems and key public and private databases. The result is a fragmented system that delays access to benefits, complicates asset transfers, increases the risk of fraud and allows payments to deceased persons to continue undetected.
Despite ongoing efforts to expand Nigeria’s digital identity infrastructure, death registration remains one of the weakest links in the country’s data ecosystem, reports Bilkis Abdulraheem Lawal.
A System That Stops at Birth
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) assigns every enrolled citizen a unique National Identification Number (NIN), which serves as a permanent identifier throughout an individual’s lifetime.
NIMC’s enrollment figures as at December, 2025 stand at over 127 million. The highest cumulative enrollment figure of over 12.9 million was recorded in Lagos State.
Under existing regulations, a deceased person’s NIN can only be retired after family members present an official death certificate and other supporting documents at a NIMC enrolment centre. Once verified, the NIN is permanently deactivated to prevent identity theft and fraud.
NPC’s Legal Mandate and Why Death Registration Matters
The National Population Commission (NPC) is the statutory agency responsible for coordinating population-related activities in Nigeria. Established under Section 153(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Commission is mandated to conduct periodic population censuses and maintain a continuous and universal system for the registration of births and deaths across the country.
In an exclusive interview, the Federal Commissioner of the NPC in Lagos State, Saidat Oladunjoye, said parents can register the birth of their children at any NPC office, local government secretariat or designated primary healthcare facility across the state.
Oladunjoye explained that the birth registration platform is integrated with NIMC, enabling a newborn to be assigned a NIN automatically, provided that at least one parent already possesses a NIN. According to her, the integration represents a major milestone in strengthening legal identity from birth and expanding access to government services.
However, unlike birth registration, death records are not automatically transmitted from the NPC to NIMC or other government agencies. Relatives have to report a death and complete multiple administrative processes; if not, records across various institutions may remain unchanged for years.
Death registration by NPC is governed by Act 69 of 1992, which designates the commission as the sole authority responsible for recording deaths and issuing official death certificates.
However, with over 2 million death cases according to Geo Factbook every year, NPC registers only 10% of all actual deaths occurring across Nigeria.
Beyond serving as a legal record of a person’s death, death registration plays a critical role in enabling families to access inheritance, pensions, insurance claims and other entitlements. It also provides vital mortality data used in public health surveillance, the preparation of life tables and evidence-based national planning.
While the NPC is responsible for documenting deaths, the absence of automatic data-sharing with other government institutions means families must often notify multiple agencies separately, creating delays, duplication and opportunities for fraud.
Speaking at the Second Meeting of the National Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Coordination Committee in Abuja recently, NPC Chairman, Dr Aminu Yusuf, warned that Nigeria’s birth and death registration rates remain unacceptably low.
“#We can no longer afford to operate in silos,” Yusuf said. “An integrated CRVS system that seamlessly connects with health facilities, identity management and other government platforms is not optional. It is imperative.”
Why Death Registration Remains Low Despite Ongoing Reforms
Despite the legal requirement for every death to be registered, Nigeria continues to record low death registration, leaving significant gaps in national records.
According to NPC, the country currently has more than 4,000 death registration points, with each of the 774 local government areas hosting at least four registration centres. In addition to these physical centres, the Commission has introduced an online platform that enables families to register deceased persons using their NIN.
However, officials say several factors continue to discourage compliance. These include limited public awareness of the importance of death registration, poor enforcement of existing laws, insufficient registration facilities in some communities, weak internet connectivity in rural areas and cultural practices that often prioritise immediate burial over formal notification to government authorities.
To reverse the trend and improve data integration, the Commission launched a key initiative, the deployment of the electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (e-CRVS) platform, which is replacing manual, paper-based records with a centralised digital database designed to improve the accuracy, accessibility and timeliness of birth and death records.
The Commission is also strengthening collaboration with key government agencies, including NIMC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to promote interoperability between their databases. The objective is to enable seamless exchange of verified death records, allowing deceased persons to be removed promptly from national identity and voter registers while reducing opportunities for fraud.
To improve registration coverage, particularly in underserved communities, the NPC is working with UNICEF, traditional rulers, religious leaders and local government authorities to decentralise civil registration services and encourage timely reporting of deaths at the community level.
Grieving Families Face Administrative Burdens
For Waheeda Bakare, who lost her mother in 2023, the process of accessing her late mother’s assets proved exhausting.
“I would describe it as frustrating because you do not have access to the funds of your deceased loved one,” she said.
According to Bakare, obtaining a death certificate, securing legal documentation and proving next-of-kin status required significant time and financial resources.
“In a situation where the deceased is the breadwinner of the family, it leaves the fate of family members hanging because the funds cannot be accessed immediately,” she explained.
The process began with obtaining a medical report from the hospital, followed by securing a death certificate from NPC. The family then engaged a lawyer to obtain a Letter of Administration from the state judiciary before approaching banks and other financial institutions.
However, even after completing these steps, additional verification requirements emerged.
“When we got to the bank, it was another ball game entirely,” she recalled. “They wanted to confirm that the deceased was actually dead. They said they needed to verify documents with the judiciary and even conduct investigations within the neighbourhood.”
According to her, some verification processes took several months, prolonging uncertainty for surviving family members.
Multiple Agencies, Multiple Procedures
Azeez Gunu, who lost his father in 2016, shares a similar experience.
After notifying banks, the pension board and the National Housing Fund authorities, he was required to submit death certificates and complete separate application procedures for each institution.
“The most difficult part was dealing with the loss of my loved one while trying to understand the administrative procedures,” Gunu said. “Each agency required different processes, so it was both tasking and frustrating.”
Although pension payments were stopped promptly, some benefits remain inaccessible years later.
“There were delays in accessing some entitlements, and some we have still not received until today,” he said.
While, National Pension Commission (PenCom) said the total number of Retirement Savings Account (RSA) Registrations as at 30 September 2025 is 10,928,039, Gunu believes a unified system would significantly reduce the burden on bereaved families.
“A single system where we could file one claim rather than moving from one agency to another would have made things much easier,” he added.
Why Banks Often Learn About Deaths Late
Financial expert Adeoye Adebola explained that banks generally have no direct way of knowing when a customer dies.
“Unless there is communication sent to the bank, they do not really know that a customer is deceased,” he said.
According to him, banks usually become aware through relatives, obituary notices or relationship managers who discover the information while attempting to contact customers.
He noted that death registration records are not systematically linked to banking databases or Bank Verification Number (BVN) records.
“The only time these records become connected is when families begin processing claims and present the necessary documentation,” Adebola explained.
According to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), which manages the BVN infrastructure on behalf of the financial system, Nigeria’s BVN database expanded to 67.8 million enrolments as at December 2025.
Once a death is confirmed, banks typically freeze all accounts belonging to the deceased. Funds can only be transferred to an estate account after relatives complete probate procedures and obtain legal authorisation from the courts.
While these safeguards help prevent fraud, they often lengthen the process for families seeking access to legitimate entitlements.
Fraud Risks and Ghost Beneficiaries
The consequences of poor interoperability extend far beyond inconvenience.
According to experts, inactive death records create opportunities for identity theft, pension fraud, insurance fraud and unauthorised financial transactions.
Adebola noted that when a customer dies and the bank remains unaware, accounts may continue operating for months.
“If a relationship manager discovers that a customer has been deceased for six months and transactions are still occurring on the account, that raises serious concerns about unauthorised access and potential fraud,” he said..
Technology and Digital Public Infrastructure expert, Bilal Yusuf described the issue as a symptom of a broader problem within Nigeria’s digital identity architecture.
“Nigeria maintains multiple databases that do not fully communicate with one another,” he said.
“We have NIMC managing identity data, NPC managing civil registration records and several other agencies maintaining separate systems. None of these systems speaks fully to each other.”.
According to Yusuf, fragmented databases have allowed fraud schemes to flourish while undermining public service delivery.
He cited instances of ghost workers, fraudulent pension payments and identity-related crimes as examples of the costs associated with disconnected systems.
The National Cost of Fragmented Data
Researchers have repeatedly warned that Nigeria’s parallel identity systems, including NIN, BVN, voter registration and SIM registration, operate largely without shared infrastructure.
A recent study Research Associate Daramola Joseph Omoyele tagged “Administrative Reach and State Capacity: Interoperability Failures in Nigeria’s Digital Identification Infrastructure” and published by the ResearchGate in February 2026, found that fragmented registries create verification inconsistencies, increase transaction costs and weaken government capacity.
The study argues that the country’s challenge is not the absence of digital identity systems but the lack of interoperability among them.
Experts also warn that weak death registration affects governance and public health planning.
Without accurate death data, governments struggle to measure mortality trends, plan healthcare interventions or maintain reliable population statistics.
Government Pushes for Greater Data Integration
While death registration systems remain poorly connected with many public databases, NIMC says it is making progress in integrating identity records across government institutions.
NIMC Director-General, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, said the Commission has successfully integrated its operations with the PenCom to strengthen transparency and curb fraud within Nigeria’s pension system.
According to her, the integration has significantly improved the annual verification of pensioners, making the exercise more efficient and reliable.
She noted that retirees can no longer access pension benefits without a valid NIN, a measure designed to eliminate duplicate or fraudulent records and ensure that benefits are paid only to verified beneficiaries.
Coker-Odusote said Nigeria’s identity ecosystem, once characterised by fragmented databases, duplicated records and inefficient public spending, is gradually evolving into a unified digital identity system through collaboration among government institutions.
“Through collaboration with our stakeholders, we are building a unified, secure and people-centred identity system that is becoming the cornerstone of national planning, financial inclusion, economic empowerment and digital governance,” she said.
The government’s interoperability drive received further legislative backing recently when President Bola Tinubu signed into law the repealed and re-enacted NIMC Act, 2026.
The amended legislation strengthens the Commission’s mandate to harmonise identity records, synchronise government databases and improve interoperability across public institutions, a move experts say could help close longstanding gaps that have allowed fragmented records, administrative inefficiencies and identity-related fraud to persist.
Learning from Global Models
Several countries have successfully integrated death registration into broader digital identity systems.
Technology and Digital Public Infrastructure expert, Bilal Yusuf, noted that Estonia is frequently cited as a leading example. There, the registration of a death automatically updates multiple government databases, including tax records, pensions, insurance and social benefits.
Every vital event, including deaths, triggers automatic updates across linked systems,” Yusuf explained. “No separate notifications to multiple ministries are required.”
Countries such as India, Rwanda and Bangladesh have also introduced varying levels of integration between civil registration and national identity systems, demonstrating that interoperability is achievable even in resource-constrained environments.
The Road to Reform
Yusuf says Nigeria already possesses many of the building blocks needed for reform, including a growing digital identity infrastructure.
Among the recommendations are mandatory electronic death notifications from hospitals, automatic NIN deactivation following confirmed deaths, dedicated funding for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics systems and stronger coordination among government agencies.
Yusuf believes the challenge is no longer about policy design but implementation.
“The major issue is not the absence of reform proposals,” he said. “The problem is execution.”
For families like Bakare’s and Gunu’s, such reforms cannot come soon enough.
As Nigeria continues its digital transformation journey, experts argue that ensuring a citizen’s identity is properly managed from birth to death is essential for efficient service delivery as well as protecting families from unnecessary hardship during their most vulnerable moments.
Until then, thousands of bereaved Nigerians will continue to navigate a fragmented system that often compounds their grief with bureaucracy.
This report is produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.
