Liberia national ID push gets boost with 500 donated biometric kits

Liberia’s National Identification Registry (NIR) has received material support from the country’s National Elections Commission (NEC) to strengthen its countrywide ID registration efforts.

The support is in the form of a donation of 500 biometric registration kits to NIR by NEC, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for which was signed recently. The ceremony was attended by some top government officials and representatives of international partner entities like the United Nations Development Program and the European Union.

According to a statement, NEC Chairperson Davidetta Browne Lansanah signed on behalf of the election management agency, while NIR Executive Director Andrew Peters put pen to paper as representative of the ID authority.

Lansanah used the signing ceremony to express gratitude to the government for making the donation possible, thanks to the release of funding that saw the purchase of 1,150 biometric kits. She said the process leading up the MoU signing involved the support of staff of both government agencies to whom she presented her acknowledgment.

Peters also lauded the move and said it paves the way for many other government agencies to follow suit. The partnership follows a government road map concluded in 2024 which emphasises collaboration among government agencies in strengthening the country’s identity management architecture.

Internal Affairs Minister Francis Nyumalin, who supervised the MoU, praised the collaboration between the two entities, noting that it will go a long way in reducing government spending.

The donation of biometric kits comes at a time when Liberia is aiming to expand national ID coverage to the entire country. These efforts are continuing amid concerns about logistical and funding problems faced by NIR.

In April, President Joseph Boakai issued an executive order making national ID mandatory for access to a wide range of public services, but ID registration was recently suspended over what the government said were administrative reasons.

With less than 15 percent of its population having enrolled for a national ID, Liberia is certainly in a race against time to meet the SDG 16.9 target by 2030. The country’s lawmakers strongly believe adoption could go up if ID cards are issued for free.

Article Topics

biometric enrollment  |  biometrics  |  Liberia  |  national ID  |  National Identification Registry (NIR)