Malawi nears full scale digital ID rollout to streamline access to services

A new public and private sector services delivery experience awaits Namibian citizens from next year when the country rolls out a national digital ID system that will streamline ID verification.

The government disclosed these plans recently during the ID4Africa 2025 AGM in Ethiopia.

In a session that was dedicated to country progress reports on identity, the Principal Secretary of Malawi’s National Registration Bureau (NRB), Mphatso Sambo, presented a detailed explanation of the country’s identity journey, noting the road covered and the activities lined up.

Ahead of the digital ID rollout, Sambo shared that a successful piloted has already been completed and the government believes nationwide deployment of the system will facilitate the way citizens and residents access all manner of public and private sector services.

Malawi’s road to an inclusive digital services ecosystem is underpinned by a strong legal ID adoption trend, with 12.5 million citizens already enrolled for a national ID, representing almost 100 percent of the total eligible population (16 years and above).

These efforts are enjoying technical and financial support from international organizations such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the European Union (EU) and Irish Adid.

“Malawi is proud to be among the few countries in Africa to provide legal identity to all citizens aged 16 and above. With over 12.5 million people registered with more than half of them women, this advances SDG 16.9 and gender equality. Linked with over 33 public and private institutions, the digital ID unlocks access to finance, social protection, and essential services,” Sambo said during his presentation.

“Through innovation and emerging technologies like AI and blockchain, Malawi has planned for a digital ID wallet. In 2024, for instance, 7.2 million Malawians exercised their democratic right, with 2 million voters registered using their offline digital IDs,” he added.

According to the NRB chief, the country’s legal identity push has been advancing at pace because enormous attention is being paid to the birth registration which is the foundation.

“Now, every child receives a national ID number at birth. And when a life ends, it is recorded immediately, ensuring seamless identity throughout life. We are currently carrying out a campaign to register every child, to give them a future and protect them from child marriage and labour,” Sambo disclosed.

Speaking further on birth registration, he noted: “We’ve registered over 3.5 million births and issued birth certificates that carry the same unique ID number used later for the national ID. This ID remains unchanged throughout life, and also appears on the death certificate when the holder dies.”

While birth registration is strong, death registration appears to be lagging, with under 200,000 deaths officially documented in the country so far, according to the NRB boss.

The imminent full-scale rollout of digital ID in Malawi next year is part of a national digital public infrastructure (DPI) ecosystem that is being put in place, with the national ID system already offering enormous leverage in accessing public services.

The country is also adopting the Universal DPI Safeguards Framework which requires factoring aspects like trust, inclusivity and data compliance into the DPI architecture.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  birth registration  |  civil registration  |  digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital public infrastructure  |  legal identity  |  Malawi  |  SDG 16.9