Somalia: 1.5 million citizens now have national identity

Somalia has registered 1.5 million citizens in its national identity system, announced the Director General of the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) on Saturday, September 19, in Mogadishu. The initiative, launched in September 2023, aims to provide Somalis with a legal identity usable for public and private services.

NIRA now operates 59 registration centers across the country and has 17 mobile teams. The authority has also opened 31 centers in Somali embassies to enable citizens living abroad to obtain their identity documents.

The government is simultaneously expanding the mandatory use of the identity card. The Director General of the Immigration and Citizenship Agency stated that it is required for passport applications. The Minister of Information added that access to mobile phone services, including SIM cards, must be linked to a verified national identity.

The program has significantly accelerated since 2025. In a report published in December 2025, the International Monetary Fund noted that approximately 400,000 people were registered by August 2025, with a pace exceeding 70,000 registrations per month due to the expansion of centers and mobile teams.

The IMF had already pointed out that digital identity was connected to several services, including passports, banking, licenses, and education. The system is also used to enhance identity verification for clients in the financial sector and to better target certain social protection programs.

The Somali Ministry of Communications also plans to soon link address information to the national identity card. The government presents this integration as a means to improve individual verification and the security of digital and administrative services.