Togo hopes to launch new biometric ID card in 2021
Published: 22/Dec/2020
Source: Biometric Update
By Ayang Macdonald
The minister in charge of digital economy and digital transformation in the West African nation of Togo, Cina Lawson, says one of the big digital projects the country is looking up to next year is the rollout of a new biometric ID card for citizens.
The minister made the disclosure in an interview on the occasion of the 2020 special report of Women in GovTech. Lawson said the project has been in the works in the last couple of years, and is inspired by India’s Aadhaar digital ID program.
“In Togo, several million people still have no basic form of legal identification as existing civil registration systems do not reach the entire population. Women are disproportionately affected by the lack of ID making it difficult, nay impossible, for them to do essential things like opening a bank account, enrolling kids in school, benefiting from health insurance, or getting a mobile phone number. It also limits the reach of digitised social protection schemes,” she noted.
With a population of 8 million citizens, the minister stated that the new ID will not only provide a biometric proof of ID for its holders, but will be the new platform “…upon which other national projects such as the establishment of a single social registry, universal health insurance, etc. will be developed.”
Read further: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202012/togo-hopes-to-launch-new-biometric-id-card-in-2021