Amid the accelerated growth of the global digital economy, digital identity is becoming ever more critical. In Africa, Nigeria and Zambia are among the countries setting the pace, with both unveiling new initiatives in the past week.
In a conference organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) last year, experts concluded that countries that implement digital identity could unlock value equivalent to up to 7% of their gross domestic products (GDPs). And yet, according to the World Bank, of the 850 million people globally who didn’t have an official form of identification in 2021, 540 million were in Africa.
But it goes beyond numbers on a graph for Africa. Lack of identity is one of the key impediments to access to basic services such as banking, healthcare, education, employment and justice.
By issuing digital identities, African nations seek to make the same leap they did with mobile phone adoption, where they skipped the landline stage of telephone evolution.
Nigeria targets 180 million digital IDs
Nigeria has been among the leaders in digital IDs in the continent. The West African nation struck a partnership with the World Bank in 2020, securing $430 million over four years to issue digital IDs. The partnership was to end in June 2024 but was extended to December. In its latest announcement, the World Bank revealed it has now extended the partnership by a further two years to December 31, 2026.
In its restructuring paper, the Washington-based financier revealed that the Nigerian government had issued 74 million national identity numbers (NINs), which serve as a foundational element of the country’s digital identity system. While impressive, it’s way below the 148 million NINs the government targeted five years ago.
Under the restructured partnership, Nigeria is aiming to enroll 180 million people by the end of 2026.
Beyond the infrastructural aid, the World Bank is also pushing for legislative reforms to Nigeria’s identity laws to “build trust in the broader digital economy so that Nigerians can utilize their digital identities to securely transact online.”
The West African country’s digital ID drive recently expanded to target rural areas with digital identity cards for farmers. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) announced the initiative last week, stating that it would transform how government services are offered.
“The adoption of this card allows the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to uniquely identify all farmers, deliver various agricultural services securely, and eliminate risks and fraud. It also provides end-to-end visibility within the agricultural value chain, fostering scalability,” FMAFS stated.
The digital IDs will contain critical data such as a farmer’s biometric data and information about their farmland, from size to the type of crops or livestock reared. It will enable the government to provide financial assistance to the farmers, eliminating avenues for fraud.
For Nigeria, the digital ID is just one facet of a digitalization drive that also includes the adoption of emerging technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain. As the first country in Africa with a blockchain roadmap, Nigeria is leading in adoption, with both the public and private sectors announcing new blockchain projects in recent years.
Zambia’s digital ID drive
In Southern Africa, Zambia is at the forefront of digital identity. The country partnered with the World Bank in 2024, receiving a $100 million grant to modernize its digital public infrastructure as the first step in the issuance of digital IDs.
The country’s e-government division, SMART Zambia, recently concluded staff training on the Modular Open-Source Identity Platform (MOSIP) architecture, which is the foundational infrastructure in Zambia’s digital ID revolution.
“The platform will enable identity verification using National Registration Card data, improving data accuracy, eliminating duplicate records, and enhancing client profile management,” SMART Zambia stated, adding that MOSIP will “transform identity management for public health systems like SmartCarePro, where accurate identification is crucial to delivering quality care.”
Zambia’s digital identity drive is the first overhaul of the country’s ID system since the country’s independence in 1965. The government has set out to issue a digital ID to everyone over the age of 16. The country has already made massive strides, with the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimating that as of last year, seven million Zambians (out of a population of 20 million) had obtained a digital ID.
CSIS notes that the challenges impeding digital ID uptake in Zambia include “limited digital literacy and technical skills, a lack of willingness to adapt to new technologies, and a high turnover rate of ITC specialists out of the public sector.”
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Steve Kaaru