Nat’l Identification registration soon

The National Identification Registry or NIR says it plans to shortly start a National Identification registration process across the country.

Speaking last weekend in Monrovia, the Executive Director of the National Identification Registry, Tiah Nagbe, said the NIR was created primarily to design, establish, maintain and administer the National Biometric Identification System (NBIS) of Liberia, expressing his team’s preparedness to move on with the process.

According to Mr. Nagbe, the process will be a modern computerized database containing important information on all citizens and residents of Liberia. Meanwhile, the NIR Executive Director has said that all Liberians and foreigners residing in Liberia, registered with the NIR, will be assigned unique identification numbers referred to as Social Security Numbers.

According to him, the number will be the primary government approved ID numbers for registration of birth, death, passports, immigrant documents, bank accounts, drivers’ licenses, social security benefits, and other identifications.

He stressed that the process will be beneficial to citizens, saying a person will be easily Identified as a Liberian citizen or a legal resident of Liberia.He added that there are other benefits, indicating that the system will collect some important information, manages such information in a smart way, and issues for each citizen or resident a permanent identification number.

The NIR boss said some of the services to benefit from the registry include elections, census and statistics, social security and welfare benefits payments, immigration, policing, investigation of crimes, banking, insurance, telecommunications, as well as use of education services, health services, issuance of other identification documents such as birth certificates, passports, drivers’ licenses, among others.

Mr. Nagbe noted that building public trust in the system was one of the challenges that might hinder the process, but assured that his team intends to build such trust by being transparent, accountable, and maintaining an open line of communication with the public.

He urged Liberians to give his management a chance and trust, until the NIR proved not to be trusted. The National Identification Registry is an autonomous agency within the Executive Branch of Government, which was created by an Act of the Liberian Legislature on August 1, 2011. A Board was set up in May of 2012 and on October 14, 2015, the first management team was appointed.

By Ethel A. Tweh-Edited by George Barpeen