By Precious D. Freeman
The Board of Registrars and Management of the National Identification Registry (NIR) has officially launched the roadmap for a comprehensive mass enrolment of citizens and foreign residents into the National Biometric Identification System (NBIS).
The event, which was officially launched by President Joseph Boakai, under the auspices of the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs in Monrovia, hopes to enhance NBIS and feed all data bases, as well as the sustainability of safe environment and proper access to services and welfare to citizens.
Few months ago, President Joseph N. Boakai made a pronouncement that his government will strengthen the NIR to build the needed capacity to be able to capture the comprehensive biometric data needed to feed all government agencies, including the National Elections Commission, and in line with article 3.2 (f) of the NIR Act. It is from that backdrop that the NIR, with support from other partners, launched the initiative.
The NIR Act which created the NIR further states that one of the key functions on the NIR shall be to advise and assist the Government of Liberia and its agencies in improving and strengthening the collection, storage, evaluation, and security of information and documents collected to register births, issue passports, and other identification documents.
Speaking at the official launch of the event, the Executive Director at NIR, Andrew Peters, disclosed that the institution has enrolled a little over 700,000 persons, which is just approximately 14 percent of the population.
This low enrollment, according to Peters, is due to enormity of challenges over the years which have limited the NIR’s capacity in terms of logistics and human resource, coupled with lack of political will to make the ID card mandatory as a prerequisite to access all services, public and private.
Peters also said this has caused many government institutions and agencies to establish their own biometric ID systems, as a means of providing services to their employees, instead of using the National Registry, which is the foundational registry of Liberia, and has the authority to provide data for citizens and legal residents.
“We want to assure all of you today that we have a robust NBIS with a verification platform to authenticate card holders, and an Application Program Interface (API) to enhance linkages with all institutions, both public and private. With respect to our function as the National Identification Registry, our plan is that the new generation of Liberians will have their birth and identity records accurately recorded, and securely kept from their day of birth in the NBIS.
However, he clarified that the process is also in partnership with the Ministry of Health (MOH). The Enrollment at Birth program lasts from 0 to 5 years. Liberia is one of few countries in the sub-region that have a system that can enroll people at this age.
He further noted key challenges that the NIR faces currently, adding “Out of a total of US$5.9 million, the cost for building the NBIS, we are still indebted to our solution provider a little over US$1.7million.”
He maintained that while it is a good thing to launch such an initiative, it is also important that the government clears the debt in order to take ownership of the NBIS, and enhance the capacity of its technicians to manage it and prevent security risk to our national data system.
During President Boakai’s first State of the Nation Address on January 29, 2024, he, among other things, said “One of the vexing problems noted during the past elections was voter registration, as well as the associated logistical problems, which tends to frustrate and anger voters and political parties.”
He stated that his government will strengthen the NIR to build the needed capacity to be able to capture the comprehensive biometry data needed to feed all agencies, including the NEC.
President Joseph N. Boakai told the gathering that the democratic and good governance system that is being built currently is intended to increase the standard of living of the Liberian people.
According to Boakai, crucial services like voter registration, access to education, health care, banking services, social security, censuses, and surveys, will be facilitated when people have unique and interlinked means of identification.
The system, he said, will also help combat crime by ensuring a robust level of accuracy, efficiency, and security, which is urgently needed to minimize the risk of identity fraud and unauthorized access to services in the public and private sectors.
In particular, the NBIS will help resolve problems with voter registration system that have plagued past elections. It is for these reasons the government is pleased to strengthen the NIR to build the needed capacity that can capture the comprehensive biometric data required to feed all agencies, including the National Election Commission (NEC).
