NCRA’s Director General – Mohamed Mubashir MASSAQUOI Showcased Sierra Leone’s Digital Identity Successes at ID4Africa Annual General Meeting in South Africa

The National Civil Registration Authority’s Director General Mohamed Mubashir MASSAQUOI led a team of identity management experts and key state institutions including Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL), National Revenue Authority (NRA), National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NaSSIT), Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs etc. from Sierra Leone to South Africa for the ID4Africa’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled for 21^st – 24^th 2024. The AGM was held in Cape Town, South Africa with the theme: Digital Identity as DPI: Fostering Trust, Inclusion & Adoption.

Being a movement with the aim of assisting African countries achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) goal 16.9 (Digital Identity Management), ID4Africa invited selected African countries including Sierra Leone to showcase progress in their various Identity Management systems, share expertise, knowledge and experiences on digital identity with the aim of improving legal identity realities in Africa.                                                                                                                                                                            The NCRA’s Director General took the audience through Sierra Leone’s epic identity management transformation journey with statistical evidences to the admiration of the entire AGM. The Director General with the unshaken (unwavering) support of the President H.E. Julius Maada Bio, took over the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) at a time when identity management in Sierra Leone was uncoordinated, fragmented and fraught with uncertainties. He took over with almost nothing and has propelled the Authority to the respectable and enviable position NCRA and by extension the Government of Sierra Leone occupies at international identity management fora today. This was evidenced by the moderator of the AGM Dr. Atick who said while congratulating the DG on Sierra Leone’s identity management success story thus:

“What I felt was national will … what was incredible is the determination at all levels and you started with nothing and had the determination to say, we will get this done. I felt it then, and I knew you were going to make it happen. So please allow me to congratulate you on a job well done.”

In the midst of hundreds of identity Management experts present in Cape Town, South Africa for the ID4Africa Annual General Meeting DG Massaquoi succinctly explained Sierra Leone’s digital identity management system.  He did not only keep the global identity expert audience and others present spell bound to listen keenly to Sierra Leone’s Identity Management success story but left them in complete awe as he mentioned the landmark successes the country has made so far under his stewardship.

However, there is the need for continuous knowledge sharing, expertise, challenges, success stories to motivate peers by African countries on digital identity gains in Africa. Sustained positive actions and initiatives of ID4Africa is critical for African countries in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals 16.9.

(c) – NCRA IEC