This year’s International Identification Day on September 16 was particularly memorable for some of us. I, Daniel, had spent it in Mogadishu seeing the outstanding work of Somalia's National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) in the Federal Republic of Somalia. NIRA was celebrating its own milestone of launching the mass registration campaign for the long anticipated foundational digital ID. I heard firsthand stories of how obtaining an ID is changing people’s lives in Somalia, reinforcing the importance of the World Bank’s support to this initiative.

Take the case of Miss Jijo, a domestic worker in her early twenties. She has been working in Mogadishu to support her family back in Bakool since she was a teenager. She had never possessed any form of personal identification, until now. When asked why she registered for the foundational ID, she said:

I had never owned any kind of identification. For a long time, I didn’t really need it, and most documents like passports or birth certificates cost money I couldn’t afford. I used to send all my earnings back to my family, but recently I received a raise and decided to start saving a little for myself. To open a bank account, I needed an ID. The Somali ID was the first one accessible to me—it’s free, and it gives me a way to build some security for my future.

The launch of Somalia’s mass registration

On August 18, 2025, NIRA launched the pilot of its foundational ID mass registration campaign in the two districts of Shangani and Boondheer. This campaign is preparing to scale up with a bold objective: to register all 3.5 million residents of Mogadishu, extend coverage across the entirety of Banadir region, and ultimately reach 15 million nationwide by the end of 2029.

This ambitious effort includes training and deploying Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) representatives to every district, capturing both the biographic and biometric data of people to establish each individual’s uniqueness while ensuring compliance with data protection and data privacy standards. Once enrolled, citizens will receive their foundational ID in physical, digital, and/or printed certificate versions, providing a secure and verifiable identity credential that can be used to access multiple public and private services.

One ID Three Formats to Increase Inclusion

The foundational ID is available as a physical card, a digital ID wallet (eAqoonsi), or downloadable and printable verifiable credential (paper certificate with QR code)

Identification – a human right and service enabler

The FGS, with sustained support from the World Bank, through the Somalia Capacity Advancement, Livelihoods and Entrepreneurship Through Digital Uplift Project (SCALED-UP) and the Somalia Productive, Resilient, and Inclusive Growth (SPRING) Project, is investing in Somalia’s foundational ID for intrinsic and instrumental reasons.

• Intrinsically, legal identity is a human right: Article 6 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to recognition as a person before the law.
• Instrumentally, legal identity is essential for accessing services and enabling governments and businesses to deliver them in an efficient and effective manner.

Establishing a unique, foundational identification enables service providers to:

• identify potential beneficiaries, allowing for targeted service delivery;
• reduce redundancies, streamlining processes across sectors and programs (which eventually reduces red tape for beneficiaries);
• authenticate beneficiaries at the point of service delivery, reducing waste and fraud;
• offer proactive and personalized services to people; and
• allow for data-driven course corrections and results-based management.

Specifically, the World Bank projects have emphasized the first use cases of the foundational ID as a gateway to essential services. These include improving access to financial services and expanding reach to critical government programs, particularly in social protection.

The launch of digital ID and NIRA’s ID verification platform, Hubiye, is also seen as a significant milestone towards mitigating Money Laundering Terrorist Financing (ML/FT) risks and facilitating financial inclusion in Somalia.

Perspectives on Somalia’s foundational ID

Despite the importance of legal identity, fewer than 16% of the Somali population currently have some form of government issued ID (according to the 2022 Somali Integrated Household Budget Survey). However, demand for one is high. Survey and focus group discussions conducted earlier this year by the World Bank, revealed that Somalis understand the value of having an ID:

Many Somalis see possession of an ID as a tool for empowerment, one that can open doors to greater opportunities, such as access to public and private services and even formal employment. For women especially, the foundational ID is a potential gateway to financial independence. As one unregistered woman from Baidoa explained:

"The Somali ID will allow me to open my bank account. Right now, I am using a family member’s account for financial transactions, which is not ideal. Once I get my ID, I will be able to manage my finances independently."

Another female participant in Dhusamareb noted:

“As a business owner, the Somali ID enables me to open a bank account, which simplifies expanding my business. It also helps me access business grants or loans."

Not just foundational but digital, too

The FGS is not content with just establishing a foundational ID; it is also a digital ID. This unlocks additional benefits:

• Online identification – Somalia’s digital ID provides an easy, safe, and trusted way for Somalis to confirm their identity online and reduces the need for multiple logins and password
• Online authentication – Somalia’s digital ID enables more public and private services to be offered online with a safe, secure, and efficient way to verify the user’s identity, streamlining processes like know-your-customer (KYC) for bank and telecommunication service providers
• Increased inclusion – Somalia’s digital ID enables easier access to services both online and in person, reducing the number of passwords and logins and decreasing indirect costs (such as multiple trips) to access services.
• Enabling innovation – Somalia’s digital ID allows for improved efficiency and interoperability, enabling government and businesses to roll out services faster in a more cost-effective way across sectors.
• Improving trust – Somalia’s digital ID builds trust by embedding privacy-by-design elements, control of data by users, secure authentication and more robust governance for data sharing.

This, in turn, paves the way for the growth of Somalia’s economy, leveraging digital technologies; facilitating the development of new, digitally driven industries; and creating more and better jobs.