Administrative Reach and State Capacity: Interoperability Failures in Nigeria's Digital Identification Infrastructure

Nigeria maintains multiple parallel identification systems, including the NIN, BVN, voter registration, and SIM registration, each operating without shared infrastructure. Drawing on qualitative comparative institutional analysis, this paper examines how this fragmented architecture affects administrative reach and state capacity. The analysis finds that parallel registries produce systematic verification inconsistencies, raise transaction costs, constrain financial inclusion, and generate enforcement gaps that weaken service delivery and regulatory effectiveness.