The Democratic Republic of the Congo recently signed a memorandum of understanding relating to the transfer of the electoral register, the registration device, the cartographic data and the collection material by the Independent National Electoral Commission to the National Identification Office of the Population (ONIP) as well as the National Institute of Statistics (INS). According to Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, this transfer will allow the pooling of identification, census and enrollment operations for the Congolese population.
This transfer also strengthens the skills of ONIP to continue its activities of identification of the population and production of the national identity card. In addition, the National Institute of Statistics now has access to reliable demographic statistical data for planning its development, as well as for the 2028 electoral cycle. Thus, the distribution of seats in the Deliberative Assemblies will no longer be based on the electoral statistics derived from enrolment, but on the real demographic weights of each entity.
This transfer of data also paves the way for the issuance of national identity cards to Congolese. Since 1984, the Democratic Republic of Congo has not carried out any scientific census of the population. Using the same equipment as that used by the Independent National Electoral Commission, the ONIP will be able to launch an operation to identify the population in the coming days. The operation will start with the city-province of Kinshasa as a pilot province.
The transfer of this data is therefore excellent news for the country, which will be able to rely on reliable statistical data to plan its development, as well as to organize future elections. This will also facilitate the identification of the population and the issuance of national identity cards, which represents a major challenge for the country and its population.