Low birth registration, high cost hinder access to legal ID in Sub Saharan Africa

While the need for legal and digital ID remains ever pressing as a result of the digital transformation wind blowing across the world, access to these credentials remains difficult for people in many sub-Saharan African countries. Low birth registration and high financial cost are cited as being among the reasons for this reality.

This is part of the findings of collaborative research that was conducted in 2021 and 2022 in 36 sub-Saharan countries by the Global Findex and the Identification for Development Initiatives of the World Bank.

A blog article which highlights ID ownership trends in these countries as reflected in the research results notes that access to government-issued identity is checkered and influenced by various factors in that part of Africa.

The results indicate that respondents in many of the countries cited the lack of birth certificates, difficulty in reaching ID enrollment centers, and financial cost among the three top reasons for why people don’t go for ID cards. Other reasons advanced included seeing no need for a government-issued ID card, possession of other forms of identification and fears about giving personal information during ID registration.

Birth registration remains a major problem in many African countries despite birth certificates being a major foundational document for issuing government ID cards.

In Benin for example, 36 percent of non-ID holding respondents said they lacked the necessary documentation including birth certificates, 27 percent said they have to travel too far, while 31 percent said it was too expensive.  In Mozambique, the percentage was 42, 40, and 35 respectively for the same reasons above.

In many of the cases where ID access is below 70 percent, it was noticed that women were “more likely than men to report getting an ID as too expensive.”

The findings of the research as summarised in the blog underscore the fact that efforts need to be ramped up and workable strategies have to be deployed in order to expand the reach of government-issued legal and digital ID, which are vital for enabling access to a wide array of services among citizens.

Many of the respondents without an ID said they couldn’t buy a SIM card such as in Tanzania, while other said the lack of an ID has left them unbanked, with many such respondents in countries like Benin, Republic of Congo, The Gambia, Liberia, Mali, and Mozambique.

This means that the lack of IDs by adults in these countries is significantly stalling financial inclusion efforts instead of enabling them, as an ID card is one of the prerequisites for opening a bank account in many or all sub-Saharan African nations.

The presentation of the ID ownership and access trends in sub–Saharan Africa, the report notes, is a sort of a wake-up call for reflections on improving the situation. As part of the steps to do this, it says new questions will be added to the Global Findex 2024 survey which will lay the groundwork for “more effective strategies to enhance ID access, digital connectivity, and financial inclusion, including gender-aware digital public infrastructure (DPI) initiatives.”

In its ID4D and G2Px 2023 annual report, the World Bank pledged to continue supporting global efforts aimed at making every citizen of the world have access to identity.

Core principles of identity

Meanwhile, in the build-up to the 2024 Identity Day to be observed on Monday September 16, Thales has reiterated the importance of everyone having an identity.

In a blog post that underscores the major trends in identity management, the French identity solutions firm highlighted the three core pillars of the Identity Day campaign which are inclusion, protection and empowerment.

The company says in championing these pillars, “we can work towards a future where everyone has a legal identity, enabling them to access the services and opportunities they deserve.”

The blog article also highlights three key trends which it says are driving the identity landscape, and they include the recognition of the Open Standards Identity APIS (OSIA) by the International Telecommunications Union, progress in identity registration in the Philippines as well as advancements in data protection.

Article Topics

Africa  |  digital identity  |  identity management  |  International Identity Day  |  legal identity  |  open standards  |  OSIA (Open Standards Identity API)  |  Thales Digital Identity and Security  |  World Bank