Zambian government to issue biometric registration cards

The Zambian government is in the midst of introducing Biometric National Registration Cards to the country.

Reported by the Lusaka Times, the biometric cards will be embedded with a secure chip containing both biographical and biometric data.

“We have plans now to introduce the Biometric identity cards which are going to have security chips on them and which will be compliant with the electoral system, Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Maxwell Nkole said. “This is the programme we are working in conjunction with the Department of National Registration”

Roughly US $6 million has been allotted for the project and the first of the cards expected to be introduced by the end of June this year. After that, cards will be issued on a regional basis, in phases.

Also reported in the Lusaka Times, In 2010, Zambia, with the assistance of the United National, deployed a biometric verification system for elections in 2011. Through the UN’s development program, Smartmatic was selected to provide the biometric verification devices.

Reported in BiometricUpdate.com, South Africans will be using new smart ID cards in place of the existing green identity books and it’s possible the ID cards could be in use by the next general election.

 

Article Topics

biometric cards  |  civil ID  |  elections  |  identity verification  |  national ID