Proving Who You Are

A notary is putting their seal on a statement that you signed this document. They cannot do that on your say-so, and a face on a video call is not enough. So before the session you verify your identity, and the notary sees the result.

It takes about five minutes from a phone. Do it as soon as you get the email, not on the day.

What you will need

One of the following, and the number or details that go with it:

• National Identification Number (NIN)
• Bank Verification Number (BVN)
• International passport
• Driver's licence
• Voter's card

You choose which. If the first attempt fails — a mistyped digit, a name recorded differently at the bank than at NIMC — you can try again or try a different one.

You may also be asked to take a quick photograph of yourself. That is a liveness check: it shows a real person is present rather than an automated sign-up. It is not a blocker — if you skip it you can still take part, and the notary confirms your identity on the day. Doing it makes their job easier and your admission quicker.

Where you are signing from

You will be asked which state or country you are in. This is not a formality and it is not location tracking — nothing reads your phone's GPS, and you type the answer yourself.

Nigerian law treats a notarisation differently depending on where the people are. If anyone signing is outside Nigeria, or in a different state from the notary, the notarial certificate has to say so and carry a specific clause about the fact that the signing was done by video. Your answer is one of the facts that decides which certificate is issued.

Answer it honestly for where you will actually be at the time of the session, and tell the notary if that changes.

If verification fails

It happens, and it is usually mundane.

• Details do not match. Names drift between records — a middle name on one and not the other, a maiden name, a spelling. Try the details exactly as they appear on the document you chose.
• The service is down. NIMC and the bank verification service both have outages. If that is the cause, you will be told so plainly — it is our problem, not yours, and the thing to do is try again later rather than reach for another document.
• Repeated failures. There is a limit on attempts, to stop somebody guessing at a stranger's details. If you reach it, tell the person who invited you; the notary can take the decision on the day, but they need to know in advance.

Whatever happens, do not leave it unresolved until the session. A signatory who arrives unverified will usually not be admitted.

What happens to what you send

The number itself is not stored. Your NIN or BVN is used to make the check and is not kept — what is retained is a one-way fingerprint of it, which can confirm a match but cannot be read back into the number.

Any document image or photograph you upload is kept, and this is the one place where a signatory is treated differently from a witness. A witness's identity evidence is deleted shortly after the session. Yours is kept with the notarial record, because you executed the document and the evidence of who you were is part of what makes the notarisation stand up years later if it is questioned.

It is kept for as long as the notarial record is kept, and it is retained with the document, not with your individual session — so it outlives the day you attended. It is visible to your notary and to platform administrators. It is never shown to the other people signing, and it is not attached to the certificate or filed with the court.

Your privacy sets out the retention periods and your rights in full.

If you already have a NotariseIt account

If you have verified your identity on the platform before, under the same email address, it carries over. Your page will say so and the step will already be complete. You do not verify twice.