Biometrics in Africa: digital ID for humanitarian responses in Ethiopia and registration priorities in Nigeria
Published: 6/Jan/2020
Source: Biometric Update
By Frank Hersey
The use of biometrics by electoral commissions is once again at the fore in digital ID news in Africa. The dispute continues over establishing an entirely new – and costly – biometric electoral roll in Ghana, and the opposition in the Republic of Congo is calling for a delay to the 2021 presidential election in part to allow more time to bring in biometric voting systems. In Ethiopia a pilot to establish traceable, digital identities for development and humanitarian assistance could help the country’s response to the estimated 6.5 million who will require food aid in 2020 and the UN will be reviewing Kenya’s human rights situation.
Ethiopia: Humanitarian response goes digital and biometric with WFP help
The government of Ethiopia intends to overhaul its response mechanism for humanitarian incidents, moving away from paper to digital and biometric and merging its approach to humanitarian and development programs, according to a note by the World Food Program.
[…]
Nigeria: ID registration centers to prioritize exam candidates
Nigeria‘s National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has stated that ID enrollment centers will be giving preference to applicants hoping to sit the standardized 2020 university entrance exams, reports This Day.
[…]
Ghana: Electoral Commission ‘plotting to rig 2020 election for incumbent’
Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, general secretary of the main opposition party the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has said at a press conference he believes the electoral commission’s intention to compile a new biometric voter management register is part of a plot by the commission chairperson Jean Mensa to rig the 2020 presidential election in favor of the incumbent, Nana Akufo-Addo, reports The Punch.
[…]