PHOTO: Andrew Peters, Executive Director, NIR
The Management of the National Identification Registry is thrilled by President Joseph Nyumah Boakai’s recognition of the NIR and his continuous support to the implementation of the registry’s statutory mandate.
The mandate of the NIR include designing, producing, and issuing biometric cards, each with a unique identifying number to be called a social security number, to be the primary government approved identity number (for registration of birth, death, passports, immigrant documents, bank accounts, driver’s license, social security benefits, and other identification documents) supported by adequate and appropriate security features to address the challenge of possible fraudulent duplication.
As a show of support, President Boakai recently issued Executive Order #147 titled: Mandatory Enrollment of All Citizens and Foreign Residents and the Use of the National Biometric Identification Cards to Access All Public and Private Services in Liberia.
The Liberian leader, in his first State of The Nation Address on January 29, 2024, referenced the NIR as an integral partner to the peaceful holding of national elections, promising his government’s commitment towards building the capacity of the registry to capture comprehensive biodata needed to feed all agencies of government including the country’s electoral body, NEC.
In order to implement the Executive Order and further seek to strengthen stakeholders’ collaboration, the NIR has begun communicating with different government ministries, agencies, commissions and private institutions to formulate regulations and guidelines to enable people in their employ to comply with the mandate of the Executive Order.
NIR’s Executive Director Andrew Peters extolled the president’s efforts, and said the registry takes the pronouncement made during his inauguration and the Executive Order as a challenge and stands ready to implement the mandate to its fullest.
Mr. Peters said mobile teams will be deployed across line ministries and agencies to ensure mass enrollment of government employees, as government takes steps to promote accountability and digital security across spending entities.
Last year, an MoU signed between the Civil Service Agency and the National Identification Registry to clear ghost names off payrolls using the National Biometric Identification System (NBIS), saved the government of Liberia US$2.5 million. Uganda, for example, saved around US$7 million in a single year by using a national identification database to verify the identities of its civil servants. Also, Malawi saved US$44 million by merging its voter registration and ID cards system.
Other benefits include increased efficiency (through reduced leakage/fraud, ghost beneficiaries in payroll systems), cost recovery through fees, and reducing high transaction cost from lack of foundational identification (e.g.) in voter identification and administrative identification).
The system also helps to minimize the capacity for an individual to assume multiple identities which has contributed to illegal activities such as money laundering, terrorist financing, and tax invasion.
Meanwhile, the administration of the registry is honored by a decision reached by the Judiciary, requesting the NIR to deploy its mobile team at the Temple of Justice to enroll judicial employees.
“In accordance with Executive Order No. 147 issued by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Liberia, mandating all Liberians to obtain a National Identification Card, we write to respectfully request your assistance in facilitating the enrollment and issuance process for employees of the Judiciary”.
“To ensure compliance with this Executive Order and to ease access for judicial staff, we kindly request the National Identification Registry to deploy a mobile team to the Temple of Justice on an agreed-upon date to carry out onsite biometric enrollment and issue National Identification Cards”.
The NIR calls on other entities to follow the example of the Judicial Branch of Government.
“Our mobile teams are available. We have the capacity. Just communicate with us and we’ll be at your service”, Executive Director Peters said.