Mozambique plans unified citizen portal to streamline digital govt services

Mozambique plans to introduce an integrated digital government system by 2029, with the launch at scale of a unified Citizen Portal expected to bring a wide range of public services together and make them accessible online.

This is according to a recent government announcement following a review of an operational plan to drive the country’s digital transformation. Part of the three-year plan, the portal is designed to improve the quality of services provided by the state, facilitate access by citizens and increase the efficiency of public administration.

According to the Minister of State Administration and Public Service, Inocêncio Impissa, Mozambicans must feel the impact of digital transformation in their daily lives. He said the platform is intended to bring public services together in one place, enabling citizens, especially those living in rural or difficult-to-reach communities, to access services without having to travel to government institutions.

Already in a pre-launch phase, the Citizen Portal provides about 26 services and has been accessed by more than 3,000 citizens. Available services include those of the National Institute of Road Transport, including driving licences and vehicle services, as well as tax services such as the taxpayer identification number (NUIT), and services from the One-Stop Service Centre (BAU).

Per officials, part of the reason is to reduce face-to-face contact between citizens and public administrations through the digitization of services and payments, which is expected to improve the traceability of processes and reduce opportunities for corruption in public transactions.

Digital ID, interoperable platform coming

Alongside the Citizen Portal, the Digital Transformation and Innovation Agency (ATDI), created in March to oversee the country’s digital transformation, is developing other components of the digital government architecture.

Among them is an interoperability platform expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2026, as well as national digital ID and government data-center projects. These projects are intended to support Mozambique’s broader digital transformation agenda and its goal of strengthening digital sovereignty. The digital transformation operational plan is part of the country’s National Digital Transformation Strategy 2025-2044 and the 2025-2029 five-year government program.

Under the interoperability component, citizens would provide their data only once, allowing state institutions to subsequently use it for different services without requiring citizens to submit the same information over and over again.

Such an approach, officials say, is part of the government’s attempt to move from fragmented digital systems towards an integrated state architecture, with different platforms and infrastructure working together to facilitate access to public services.

In May, Mozambique published a call for consultancy services for the implementation of a national mobile digital ID and digital signature infrastructure under the Digital Economy and e-Government Project (EDGE), financed by the World Bank.

The digital ID project is designed to support identification, authentication and electronic signatures and is intended to connect with the country’s interoperability infrastructure. ATDI says the digital ID procurement has reached the stage where a shortlist has been defined and submitted to the World Bank. Contracting was planned for this month.

Mozambique is also looking outward for digital public infrastructure expertise. In April, ATDI signed a memorandum of understanding with Ethiopia, whose FaydaVerse Digital Solutions Enterprise, a state-owned entity, was recently launched to foster cooperation on digital ID and DPI from a business perspective. The agreement between the two countries is to encourage cooperation and exchange of experience.

Article Topics

Africa  |  digital government  |  Digital Transformation and Innovation Agency (ATDI)  |  Mozambique