About 196 million people within the Economic Community of West African States are said not to have any form of legal identity, despite the high level of regional mobility within the bloc.
However, in a bid to address the issue, the ECOWAS has launched the West Africa Unique Identification for Regional Integration and Inclusion (WURI) program.
The program is part of efforts to deepen regional inclusion and identify citizens of member states across the region.
The project, which is in two phases, will be expanded by all the other member states of ECOWAS as a way of providing a legal and acceptable identity for all citizens of the regional economic and political bloc
The World Bank-sponsored West Africa Unique Identification for Regional Integration and Inclusion (WURI) program is set to gain new momentum after members of the steering committee met last week in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, to approve the overall program development objectives.
According to the ECOWAS Commission, which is spearheading the project, the first phase of the $395 million project, which is meant to provide unique proof of identity for easy access to public services, has already been piloted by Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea and is being implemented by Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Togo.
The ECOWAS Commission and its partners reiterated during the Lagos meeting where the Programme Development Objective (PrDO) was signed that the WURI program is designed to provide legal and digital identity for ECOWAS citizens in order to improve financial inclusion, ease access to services, and advance member countries’ regional integration efforts.
During a recent meeting, Massandjé Toure-Litse, the ECOWAS commissioner for economic affairs and agriculture, stated that the project seeks, among other things, to close the region’s ID gap and to put in place a unique ID platform that will streamline access to services both in users’ home countries and in any country within the ECOWAS area.
Massandjé Toure-Litse, the ECOWAS Commissioner for economic affairs and agriculture, speaking during the recent meeting, said the project, among other things, seeks to close the ID gap existing in the region and to put in place a unique ID platform that will streamline access to services both in the home countries of users and in any country within the ECOWAS area.
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