Sierra Leone has announced plans to put a National ID in place using Blockchain, with assistance from the United Nations and non-profit Kiva, undaunted by the challenge that 85% of Sierra Leoneans lack internet and 75% are unbanked. It will be important to check back in in late 2019 when the program is supposed to be in use. The timeline sounds optimistic, but if it can be done there is huge efficiency gains which the Australian government could well learn from.
President of Sierra Leone, Dr Julius Maada Bio stated in his announcement of the new system on Monday:
“First, we will digitise identities, 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.”