Mogadishu, (SONNA) – Somalia is set to unveil the first National Identification card to the citizens, since the collapse of the central government more than three decades ago, according to the National Identification and Registration Authorities NIRA.
In an interview posted on YouTube Abdullahi Bihi, the chairperson of NIRA said, they are preparing to register over 500,000 before the end of this year 2023, as almost everything related to this has been completed and just goes forward.
In March, this year Somali President, H.E Hassan Sheikh Mohamud signed the registration law after the approval of both Houses of the Parliament, and Bihi believed now they are capable of carrying out this immense project in the Horn of Africa Nation.
Pakistan National Database and Registration Authority have developed the database in which NIRA will operate, and for the safety and reliability of this server question, Mr. Bihi said in regard to that concern we have agreed, after the completion of this database eventually they will take the responsibility of the server.
“In the beginning, we ordered them to create the server code with our name,” Bihi said. Adding that “We secured the server control to be in our hands only”.
During the interview, Bihi confirmed that in the coming three years around 10 million Somalis will be registered.
Are there any registration fees? Was asked, Mr. Bihi replied so far no official decision on that but probably will be charged a small amount of payment to the cardholders in order to cover the operational cost.
A country has no official censes, and National Identification for more 30 years, is now trying to develop new digital ID for its citizens which even don’t know their number.
By Ali Abdirahman
