A $1.2 Billion Warning — DR Congo Cancels Its National Biometric ID Contract Over Cost and Governance Concerns

The Democratic Republic of Congo's National Office for Population Identification (ONIP) was tasked with building the country's first national biometric identity register, capturing fingerprints, facial images and iris data to issue verifiable IDs in a country where a large share of the population lacks formal identification. Around 2021–22, ONIP's own estimate put the cost of the system and supporting infrastructure at about $360 million. A consortium led by French biometrics firm Idemia and Congolese intermediary Afritech, headed by Samba Bathily, was granted exclusive rights to build it.
By the time the contract was finalised, the projected cost had risen to $1.2 billion — more than three times ONIP's original estimate. The World Bank declined to help finance the project, citing the absence of a competitive bidding process. Internally, a 2023 ONIP memo warned the arrangement could turn into an "enormous scam," and the country's Inspectorate General of Finance separately questioned the legality and feasibility of the proposed financing structure.
These warnings became public on August 9, 2024, when Bloomberg and Lighthouse Reports published a joint investigation detailing allegations of financial mismanagement and cost irregularities in the deal. Three days later, on August 12, 2024, ONIP Director General Richard Ilunga cancelled the $1.2 billion contract. He gave no explicit public reason, but the cancellation followed directly from the investigation and the pre-existing internal warnings.
No biometric enrollment centers were opened and no citizens were registered under the contract before it was scrapped. The underlying identification gap the project was meant to close remains unresolved, and the episode stands as a cautionary case for other governments considering large, single-vendor biometric ID contracts without competitive tendering or independent financial oversight.

Read the full analysis: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2024/09/03/congo-cancels-12-billion-id-system-contract-after-costs-spiral/