Guinea-Bissau deploys efforts to digitize birth registration, national ID systems

Considerable efforts are underway to ensure the complete digitization, integration and modernization of the civil registration and national ID systems of Guinea-Bissau as the West African nation advances its digital transformation agenda.

For civil registration, the digitization of existing records and services is happening through a new system dubbed Integrated System of Citizen Registers and Statistics (SIREC), the Head of the Civil Registration Office at the country’s Ministry of Justice, Raul Gomes, told Biometric Update in an interview on the sidelines of the ID4Africa 2025 AGM.

Gomes explained that although the overall birth registration rate in the country is currently below 50 percent, significant efforts are being deployed to fast-track the process and set the stage for a an integrated digital identity system which the government envisages in the next few years.

“At the moment, we are digitizing our national civil registry. We’ve been registering all births through a system we call SIREC, which stands for Integrated System of Citizen Registers and Statistics,” Gomes told Biometric Update. Following the launch of the system, the UNDP provided training for civil registry officers on how to effectively used enrollment kits and the new platform.

“So, yes, the system is being digitized. We started the process almost three months ago. You’d realize that we just began, which is why we are here [at ID4Africa AGM] to share experiences with countries that are already more advanced in this area than we are.”

With regard to the registration of children at birth, Gomes said they have started the process digitally and are expanding it to more areas, while also looking at the possibility of integrating the birth registration system with the health and education sectors.

“About 46 percent of children under the age of five in Guinea-Bissau are registered. The government and its partners are making significant efforts to move civil registration services to the most remote areas to register children. In health facilities as well, we are training health technicians so that they can carry out birth registration themselves.”

All of this is happening thanks to multifaceted support and collaboration, he emphasizes. “In addition to support which the government is providing for us, we are also supported by UNICEF, UNDP as well as the University of Aveiro in Portugal.”

The litany of challenges notwithstanding, Gomes believes their efforts are well fitted in the government’s ongoing digital transformation strategy. He bemoans the challenge of lack of adequate funding to carry out their activities, as well as connectivity issues which are hampering the digitization drive.

“Despite these difficulties, I believe we are on the right track, and the government is very aware of the importance of digitization. That’s why we’re heading in this direction. We have political support from our government, which makes us confident that things will progress well as we look forward to realizing our objectives.”

“I can say that in a globalized world, one cannot live or succeed in isolation. We need to follow the path that everyone else is taking. That means we cannot remain isolated. It’s a challenge of globalization we must deal with as we struggle to digitize our identity systems.”

Guinea-Bissau already has a functional biometric national ID card system, but the government is working in collaboration with the UNDP under a project dubbed “Building National ID” project to integrate and modernize it for more seamless access to a wide range of services. Financial support for the project also comes from the Swiss Confederation.

The country is also one of six nations of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to have fully operationalized the regional ENBIC biometric ID card to facilitate cross-border movement and trade in the west Africa economic and political bloc.

Article Topics

birth registration  |  civil registration  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  Guinea-Bissau  |  ID4Africa  |  ID4Africa 2025  |  legal identity  |  national ID  |  SDG 16.9  |  UNDP  |  UNICEF