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Good practice Imported

Suriname e-ID — National Digital Identity Card

Suriname · Paramaribo · See the Suriname profile · See the Paramaribo profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 29% 88/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Suriname's e-ID replaced paper ID cards with a biometric digital ID, backed by a legal deadline that forced adoption. By April 2022, over 320,000 citizens — more than half the population — held a valid e-ID, though interior communities still lag.

320,346
Citizens holding a valid e-ID (by 28 April 2022)
~119,000
Citizens not yet applied or awaiting collection/processing (as of April 2022)
13
Bureaus voor Burgerzaken equipped with e-ID booths
3 years
Transition window before paper IDs lost validity (15 March 2019 – 15 March 2022)
Suriname e-ID — National Digital Identity Card

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Centraal Bureau voor Burgerzaken (CBB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Suriname
Period
2019–present
Keywords
digital identity, e-government, civil registration, digital public infrastructure

Context

Suriname's Centraal Bureau voor Burgerzaken (CBB), under the Ministry of Home Affairs, launched the e-ID on 15 March 2019, replacing the country's PVC identity card with a machine-readable digital ID that stores a citizen's e-signature, facial image and fingerprints. To drive adoption, the government set a hard legal deadline: old paper-style ID cards lost their legal validity on 15 March 2022, a three-year transition window. The rollout combined this deadline with physical service expansion, including 13 Bureaus voor Burgerzaken equipped with dedicated e-ID booths in towns such as Moengo, Apoera and Nieuw-Nickerie.

Results

By 28 April 2022, independent news outlet United News Suriname reported that 320,346 citizens held a valid e-ID, with roughly 119,000 more either not yet applied or awaiting collection or processing.

Conclusions

Remote interior communities, including Anapaike and Apetina, have specifically requested mobile registration services — a gap the government's own reporting acknowledges remains open.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

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Data sources

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