NIR begins Identification card registration

The National Identification Registry of Liberia kicks off Identification card registration for residents and citizens of Liberia. Executive Director J. Tiah Nagbe recalls that on October 30, 2017, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf launched the first Biometry National Identification System in the country.

Speaking at the Ministry of Information’s regular press briefing on Thursday, 30 November he says the National Identification cards have two components: the data base that covers all citizens and residents and the identification instruments that are being issues.

Mr. Nagbe explains that three key instruments are being issued to the public, namely; Citizen’s National Identification Card, Resident’s National Identification Card, and the ECOWAs Standard Citizens Identification Card, which will be designed and implemented in a way that in the future, it would be used as travel document throughout the region to make traveling convenient for citizens.

He adds that the data base will provide information that will be used to help deliver services in both private and public sectors better to enhance development planning and implementation.

The NIR boss announces that registration has started at the national headquarters in Congo Town with efforts underway to open sub-centers around the country.
He says a total of 11 centers are expected to be opened across Liberia besides mobile teams that will in communities to conduct enrollment, stressing that registration for those cards is not by choice, but a duty.

“The Act that established the National Registry of 2011, states that every citizen of Liberia shall be required to enroll in the National Biometry System where the identity will be recorded and confirmed by the Government of Liberia as citizens”, Nagbe further emphasizes.

According to him, national ID number and card will be linked to many services in Liberia, such as banking business, registration of Sim cards, payment of taxes, and application for Liberian Passports, among others.

By Ethel A. Tweh-Editing by Jonathan Browne