How to verify a NIN in Nigeria
There are two different jobs people mean by this. Finding your own number, and confirming a number really belongs to the applicant in front of you.
Finding or checking your own NIN
Your eleven digit National Identification Number is printed on your slip and on your card. If you cannot find either, dial *346# from the phone number you enrolled with and follow the prompts, or use the official NIMC app to retrieve it. There is a small network charge for the USSD route.
If the name or date of birth shown against your number is wrong, that is a correction to make at an enrolment centre. No employer and no verification service can change what the register holds.
Never send your NIN in a WhatsApp chat, and never pay a stranger to retrieve it for you.
Confirming an applicant’s NIN
Looking at the card is not a check. Cards can be borrowed and slips can be edited. What you need is a confirmation that the number, the name and the date of birth belong together in the register.
That has to be done through a licensed route, with the person’s agreement, and the answer comes back as a match or a mismatch. On Hirably you enter the number and the details the person gave you, they agree on their own phone, and the result lands on the case, usually within a few hours.
Consent is not optional
You may not run a check on someone who has not agreed to it. Every Hirably check waits for the worker to open their private link and agree, and the agreement is stored with the case, with the time it was given. That record is what protects you as much as it protects them. Details are on our consent page.
What a mismatch usually is
Nine times out of ten it is a typing error or a name recorded differently: a married name, a middle name used every day, or a spelling the register holds another way. Ask the person to read the number out from the card and tell you exactly which name it was registered under, then try once more.
If it still does not match, that is a fact worth knowing before anyone starts work. We treat it as an answer to review, never as an automatic verdict.
Identity is one fact
A confirmed NIN tells you the person is who they say they are. It says nothing about where they live, who will stand for them, or how the last job ended. For a home role, pair it with a physical address visit and at least one guarantor. Read why an address check needs a real visit.