Congolese Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde Kyenge presided over the official signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), the National Office for Population Identification (ONIP) and the National Institute of Statistics (INS) for the transfer of the electoral register, enrollment devices, cartographic data and collection equipment. This signature paves the way for the issuance of national identity cards to all Congolese.
The project to provide the country with a general population file is a promise of the government which is keen to materialize through the identification and census operations provided for in its 2021-2023 action program validated at the National Assembly. . Since 1984, the country has not carried out a scientific census of the population. The government is therefore on the verge of taking up a major demographic challenge.
The first national identity cards will be issued in mid-2023, after more than three decades of waiting. According to the Prime Minister, this will be a big step for the population, the government and above all for the President of the Republic, who has promised to give each citizen his identity card and offers the country reliable statistics of its demography.
The President of the CENI, Denis Kadima Kazadi, hailed the government’s determination to pool enrollment systems, cartographic data and equipment for collecting identification and census operations between the CENI, ONIP and the INS. He also symbolically handed over the materials used for voter registration to ONIP so that it could proceed, in the days that followed, with the official launch of the population identification operation.
Despite the difficulties encountered on the ground, the government has managed to stay the course and keep its promise to provide the country with a general population file. This is a big step towards issuing national identity cards to all Congolese and obtaining reliable statistics on the country’s demography. The next few months will be a major challenge for the government, ONIP and INS, which are called upon to continue the identification and census operations for the realization of this project.