The government of Mozambique is receiving support from the World Bank to provide free national ID cards, addressing the country’s significant identification gap. Since the pilot phase began in November last year, over 140,000 individuals have received national ID cards, granting many access to essential services that were previously out of reach due to a lack of identification.
Citizens, including schoolchildren, had long faced challenges in obtaining ID cards due to high costs and inaccessible enrolment centers, limiting their access to critical services such as education. To overcome these barriers, the World Bank, through the Digital Governance and Economy Project (EDGE) and the Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative, partnered with Mozambique’s National Directorate of Civil Identification (DNIC) and other government bodies to offer free ID credentials.
In a related project that started in 2022, the World Bank, through ID4D, helped issue identity cards and birth certificates to forcibly displaced persons. By early 2023, over 21,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) had benefited from this initiative, which aimed to provide both ID cards and birth certificates simultaneously.
Mozambique is making significant progress in its digital transformation efforts. With the majority of the country’s 33 million people now able to access public and private sector services through a digital ID system implemented by Muhlbauer, the nation is well on its way to bridging the identification gap and enhancing service accessibility for all its citizens.