The government of Sierra Leone is to introduce a blockchain-based national identity system at the end of this year, enabling citizens to “grant access to approved institutions to assert and verify identity and also build credit histories,” the country’s president has announced.
The National Digital Identity Platform (NDIP) has been developed in partnership with the United Nations[1] and financial services nonprofit Kiva[2] and is being implemented in two steps.
“First, we will digitise identities,” President Dr Julius Maada Bio explained. “Second, we will use that digital identity as the unique nationally recognised identifier called the National Identification Number that is non-duplicating and non-reusable, around which the credit reporting and lookup apparatus is built as well as a unique source of reference for every service delivery in the country.
“Step one has been completed; Step two will be completed by the end of this year.”
“With the new national digital identity system, financial service providers are now able to efficiently verify the identity and ultimately the credit history of a customer wanting to open an account or access a loan,” he added.
“This directly translates into citizens having improved access to affordable credit to invest in entrepreneurial endeavours and to also meet consumption or financial shocks that occur as a result of life events.
“Access to credit and financial services can significantly improve the lives of citizens by making citizens more financially resilient. Further, it will strengthen and expand the private sector, the backbone of any modern economy.
“For the first time in Sierra Leone there is now a pathway for farmers in rural communities, for instance, to access the capital needed to invest in their farms, increase production and therefore improve
