Last year, Parliament amended electoral laws to make the national ID the only legally recognised proof of identity during voter registration. This illustrates political will to put the national identity card at the centre of provision of social services. How are other service providers integrating the card to best serve Malawians? Our Staff Writer JAMES CHAVULA engages National Registration Bureau (NRB) principal secretary MPHATSO SAMBO.
Q. How are you performing in terms of integrating that national ID with other services that we can possibly access using the chip?
A: Some of the security features that are on the card could be used for integration, apart from being just security features. The chip is one of them and depending on the technical capacity, the banks can integrate with NRB to leverage from what we can provide. We have the QR code at the back of the card and other features. So a service provider, a bank for example, can connect to NRB to verify the details for an individual if that person is indeed registered by NRB. We have that service and many banks are already integrated with us. We can also use our offline verification tool. We have a biometric solution which is ready, meaning that we can just walk into a service provider with your finger without bringing an ID card. If you put your finger on a fingerprint reader, then your details will be pulled and your service provider can authenticate that you’re the right person or beneficiary bearing those details.
Q: Are service providers coming forth to integrate with this card? Are they eager to integrate?
A: I would want us to talk about the whole ecosystem of the integration. They are coming forward and we are engaging them. We have several interfaces with them to make them understand how they can benefit by integrating with NRB.
Q. What does the future look like if we continue building on our national register at the pace we are doing?
A. We are doing everything at the right pace and quite faster than many other countries in Africa. This is the centre of the economy, the centre of the economic growth of the country. If we talk of tax collection, registration is at the centre of the whole process. If we talk of social benefits, identification is at the centre. If we talk of the current population which also determines the GDP of the economy, registration is at the centre. If we take this route and stay the course, Malawi could be one of the fastest-growing economies and Malawi can grow its economy very quickly by using digitalisation. Digitalisation is one of the agendas in the Malawi 2063 and MIP1, its first 10-year implementation plan. We can only achieve digitalisation if we have the digital ID that we have and the digital payments that we also have. We also need the data sharing system and the digital public infrastructure. So the digital ID that we have is an economic infrastructure that every country needs, an economic infrastructure that Malawi needs apart from the roads, airports, and rails. The digital ID that we have in Malawi is a public infrastructure that will help us to grow as a country.
Q. One of your bragging rights is that NRB has registered over 12 million Malawians aged 16 and above, beating the target of 11 million that the National Statistical Office (NSO) projected based on the 2018 census. How do you explain the difference of about 500 people, which is a huge margin of error statistically? How are the two institutions working together to ensure that the nation has figures that are not only correct but also reliable for planning?
A. NSO uses estimates, so we cannot question their projections. Those are just approximates. NRB is using real data of the people that come in person to register and obtain the national ID, so we cannot question the real data. As institutions, we have NSO staff seconded to NRB. As institutions, we are working together and we are also learning from each other and other countries that are using national registration data for their national statistics. So we have some countries that are supporting us, like Norway, who stopped conducting censuses because their national registration process is developed and produces reliable population data. We will continue to learn from them. The Norwegians are here and we will also be going to Norway to learn how NRB and NSO can work together.
Q: How do you see the national register at NRB changing the way the periodic census is done?
A: We are familiar with the census which happens every 10 years. This time, we are talking about the real time population data. In the past, there wasn’t something like this. So this is the new approach. So the new approach will help us to count everyone and leave no one behind. Everyone counts.
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