Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya reveal revenue generation models from national ID programs

At ID4Africa 2025, a panel of representatives from five African countries deemed advanced in identity spoke on ‘Reimagining Identity Authorities as Digital Public Utility Enterprises.’

This was about how digital identity “needs to be like a public utility,” like water, like electricity, as the moderator introduced the topic. How to manage such digital public infrastructure? You become a digital public utility enterprise.

The panelists included Bisoye Coker-Odusote, CEO and director general of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) of Nigeria; Dr. Christopher Wanjau, Secretary of National Registration for Kenya; Theresa Eson-Benjamin, Head, Legal and Compliance, at the National Identification Authority of Ghana; Devendre Gopaul, permanent secretary to the prime minister’s officer for Mauritius; and Mouhcine Yejjou, director of Morocco’s eID Project.

The panelists were asked how their systems generated revenue.

Wanjau of Kenya said identity systems are usually costly and involve substantial investment, but that documents and ID cards are classified as human rights that citizens of the country enjoy, so a lot of the investment should be from the government. The first time an identity card is issued it’s free, but for replacements and “other processes” the national bureau charges fees and those fees can usually support their system.

Wanjau advocates for a hybrid system with government funding and resources generated through the fees that are charged in the issuance of identity cards and from online verification can be used to fund identity authorities.

Coker-Odusote of Nigeria said they charge for enrollment and modification of details for the diaspora, which is a revenue generating model, and they also charge if users want to update via the “self modification platform.” They are currently working on the Nigeria Public Key Infrastructure (NPKI), which will be another revenue generator.

They charge license and registration for front-end partners, there are KYC services for banks, and they charge for the download service.

Coker-Odusote was asked if the fees go directly to the NIMC or if it goes to the ministry of finance. She said that 100 percent of the revenues goes to the ministry of finance, but that they get to keep 40 percent of the revenue generated. After further probing, Coker-Odusote revealed that currently the revenues are “really low” but that with the PKI certification, and ensuring that that will be done for the private sector and not just for the public sector, they will be able to generate a lot more.

Eson-Benjamin of Ghana was up next, with explanation of the different approach the country has taken with funding its Ghana card. Eson-Benjamin explained that the Ghana model is premised on a public-private partnership arrangement. “In this arrangement we looked at which party is best placed to manage risk,” she said.

The government’s risk would be operational, policy and all the things that needed to be done to make registration successful, she said. Following assessment, with the private sector invested in technology and looking at international best practices, Ghana concluded that the private sector was best placed to handle the technology and the government was best placed to handle operational activities as well as the policy.

There was deep involvement from both the private and public sector in the development of the identity ecosystem in Ghana, Eson-Benjamin said, with investment coming from both. The Ghanaian representative was asked to clarify ownership and said that the database is owned by the government, so that it is “government that manages and owns the data-bearing assets of the authority of the country.”

Eson-Benjamin was asked how long is such a PPP arrangement contract. “Because of the long-term benefits that must come into a PPP project we considered a 15-year model,” she replied. Currently, they are in year seven of the model. “And for that 15-year model what it says is that our process is based on the generation of revenue to finance the project,” she continued.

“So apart from the investment that the government and the private sector made in year one, all subsequent years the revenue that we generate from the projects goes back into the projects to finance it and then also to generate revenue for the country.”

Eson-Benjamin explained that there is an escrow account with the revenue generated, from ID replacements and updates of personal information, going into that account. But the most important part of the revenue generation model is the identity verification, she said. The Ghanaian representative pointed to how the banking sector, the social sector, and the health sector are leveraging the Ghana card for their services.

“They are piggybacking on the Ghana card and any time they do a verification of an identity, in order to either pay a claim or render a service, they pay a little fee that goes into our escrow, and that services the project,” she said.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  digital public infrastructure  |  Ghana  |  ID4Africa  |  ID4Africa 2025  |  Kenya  |  legal identity  |  national ID  |  Nigeria