Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, is set to start issuing digital national identification card (ID) for its inhabitants next week.
Among the personal information to be included in the new digital ID of Addis Ababa includes, blood type of the ID bearer. It will also be bar-coded and will have figure prints of the bearer unlike the previous ID of the City.
The City will start issuing the new digital ID from Addis Ketema Sub City, according to the office of Federal Documents Authentication and Registration Agency. After testing how the process goes in Addis Ketema Sub City, based on the lesson learned the Office is planning to continue issuing the new digital ID in the remaining sub cities of Addis Ababa, according to stet broadcaster- ETV, which quoted the Agency’s official.
The report also indicated that unlike the previous Kebele ID of Addis Ababa, the new digital ID will not have tribe and birth place of the bearer.
The introduction of information technology based digital ID in Ethiopia is expected to help the fight against the people who use fake IDs to avoid tax and commit crimes, among others. Recently, the Ministry of revenue has captured over a hundred big businesses, run by individuals who got the business licenses using fake IDs and evaded tax in tens of millions of dollars.
In addition, if the country manages to distribute digital IDs to all its citizens before the upcoming May 2020 national election; it is expected to impact the democratization process of Ethiopia positively by reducing election related frauds.