NIRA's Digital ID — Somalia Rebuilds a National Identity System From Near-Zero Coverage, Passing 1.5 Million Enrolments

Somalia has among the lowest ID-coverage rates in the world: the World Bank estimates fewer than 16% of the population held any form of government-issued identification before this effort. Somalia's National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), created under the Identification and Registration Act (Law No. 009 of March 2023), launched its "eAqoonsi" digital ID in September 2023 and, with World Bank funding (the SCALED-UP and SPRING projects) and technical assistance from Pakistan's NADRA, began mass biometric registration in Mogadishu's Shangani and Boondheer districts in August 2025.
Citizens' fingerprints and facial biometrics are captured and matched against a central database using an AI/machine-learning deduplication engine (the "Hubiye" verification platform) to guarantee each person is registered only once — the same category of 1:N biometric matching used in comparable systems already documented in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda. From 1 September 2025, banks have been required to use the ID for new or updated accounts, and by NIRA's conference of 24-25 November 2025 more than 24 public and private services had integrated with it.
At a World ID Day event in Mogadishu on 20 September 2026, Interior Minister Ali Yusuf Ali Hoosh said NIRA has now registered more than 1.5 million citizens since 2023, working toward a target of 15 million by 2029; he said ID issuance remains free within Somalia and will soon extend to Somali embassies abroad, with priority given to persons with disabilities and displaced communities, and stressed data-protection responsibilities for government and private users of the system without detailing technical safeguards. NIRA has separately said it still needs $125 million to complete the nationwide rollout, and the effort continues in one of the world's most fragile security and institutional environments.

Read the full analysis: https://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2026/Sep/206316/somalia_registers_15_million_citizens_under_national_id_system.aspx