New biometric ID card center opens for citizens in northern Cameroon

Citizens in the three northern administrative regions of Cameroon have begun receiving new national ID cards following the opening of a new production center in the city of Garoua in the North Region.

State broadcaster CRTV reports that the new centre, which is now operational, will serve citizens in the Adamawa, North and Far North regions, which make up a huge percentage of the country’s population.

The head of the multipurpose national ID card center, Bouba Nezene Blaise, is quoted as saying that ID enrollment centers have also been opened in some hard-to-reach towns such as Poli, Figuil, Guider, Lagdo and Tcholire in the North, while others are also functional in the Far North and the Adamawa.

The official said the idea is to enable citizens in these localities to easily obtain their ID cards. Some citizens interviewed at the ID center expressed delight and relief, as many of them have been streaming in to collect their cards which they need for day-to-day transactions. A young man said he had come to collect his ID because he was preparing to register for a competitive entrance exam.

The multipurpose national ID production center in Garoua is the second to be opened within the framework of Cameroon’s new generational national ID contract with Augentic, after that of Douala which was inaugurated in March. The cards are in ICAO’s standard ID-1 format and feature 15 visible and invisible security features, including holographic elements and microtext, the company says.

This is in addition to regional enrollment centers in the 10 administrative regions of the country. The Garoua center issues around 2,000 ID cards daily.

Cameroon launched the new biometric national ID card system in February with a promise for cards to be delivered within 48 hours after successful application. However, there have been complaints from citizens that the 48-hour deadline is not respected in some cases.

In June, lawmakers also raised concerns about the difficulties which still plague the ID issuance process, and called for the opening of more enrollment centers in order to reduce the high cost and complications.

IOM collects data for streamlined humanitarian intervention

The Northern regions of Cameroon host huge numbers of refugees and internally displace persons, many of who do not have legal identity and so face difficulties in accessing importance social services.

As part of efforts to easily identify some of them and facilitate access to humanitarian assistance, teams from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) were recently on the field in the North Region to collect personal data.

The agency said in an X post that it has also trained enumerators, and wants to ensure that it obtains quality data in order to “truly meet the needs of displaced and host communities.”

Joint efforts between the government of Cameroon and the UNHCR are also in progress to issue biometric ID cards to refugees to help access vital services.

 

Article Topics

Augentic  |  biometric enrollment  |  Cameroon  |  digital ID  |  International Organization for Migration (IOM)  |  legal identity  |  national ID  |  refugee registration