WHEN PRESIDENT JOSEPH Boakai issued Executive Order No. 147 in April, mandating that all Liberians obtain a national identification card by August 1, the directive was hailed as a long-overdue push toward modern digital governance.
BUT JUST TWO months later, that dream is unraveling in real time. What was intended to be a groundbreaking leap into the digital future has quickly mutated into a national crisis — one defined not by progress, but by long lines, institutional chaos, and growing public anger.
ACROSS MONROVIA AND beyond, thousands of Liberians rise in the early hours — often before dawn — to join long, snaking lines at overcrowded National Identification Registry (NIR) centers. Some arrive at 4:00 a.m. only to be turned away by 8:00 a.m. after the day’s quota is filled. The lucky few who receive one of the 85 daily registration slips per center must then endure hours in the heat, while the rest return home empty-handed, their hopes dashed.
THIS IS NOT digital empowerment. This is digital disenfranchisement. Take Rick Scott, a 54-year-old businessman who has made four separate attempts in a single week to register. Each time, he returned home with his $5 registration fee still in hand — and nothing to show for it. “I leave my job in the morning and come to find an ID card because it’s a government mandate,” he said. “But we are all fighting to get an ID card, and the process is just going slowly. Some of us are not feeling well, but we are forced to come here.”
THIS STORY REPEATS itself across neighborhoods, counties, and communities — a shared struggle against an unprepared system that was never built to handle a nationwide mandate of this scale within this timeline.
MONROVIA ALONE HAS over one million adult residents. Yet the city is serviced by just 15 registration centers, each capable of processing 85 people a day. That’s a daily total of 1,275 individuals — meaning it would take more than three years to register Monrovia alone, not including the rest of Liberia’s population. The math was flawed from the start. And the consequences are real.
AS IF THE logistical challenges weren’t enough, many banks, telecommunications companies, and even public institutions have begun prematurely demanding the national ID card before the August 1 deadline. This is not only impractical, it is unjust and irresponsible. We call on all institutions, public and private, to immediately cease these premature enforcement practices.
THE AUGUST 1 deadline is still weeks away. It makes no sense, morally or operationally, to deny citizens access to their money, their mobile service, or public resources for failing to present an ID that they simply cannot obtain through any fault of their own.
PASTOR HOUSTON HARRIS of Better World Church was recently denied a loan because he lacked the national ID. That money, he explained, was essential to supporting his business and providing for his family. “It looks so bad for me because I am supposed to receive money, and I can’t receive money,” he said.
THIS IS JUST one of countless examples of how policy failure is bleeding into economic hardship — where access to financial tools, healthcare, communication, and social mobility are now locked behind an inaccessible plastic card.
MAKING MATTERS WORSE is the rampant corruption that has emerged within the registration process. Multiple reports suggest that bribes have become the fastest — and sometimes the only — route to service. Marlene Rose Clark, a resident of the 72nd community, witnessed it firsthand. “I know that they want to bypass the system to give them some cash,” she said. “They only want us to give them money, extra money, outside of what is required.”
IN A COUNTRY long plagued by corrupt systems, this revelation is not surprising. But it is especially disgraceful when the corruption emerges in a program explicitly created to improve transparency and restore public trust.
THE NATIONAL ID initiative is backed by a staggering $57 million — including $27 million in government allocations and $30 million in World Bank support through the GREAT Project (Governance Reform and Accountability Transformation).
YET DESPITE THESE funds, the rollout has ground to a halt due to an unresolved debt of $5.9 million owed to Techno Brand, the Nairobi-based firm that built the NIR infrastructure. Until that debt is paid, $2 million in additional World Bank funding is frozen, leaving the registry unable to open more centers, send out mobile teams, or scale its systems.
ANDREW PETERS, EXECUTIVE Director of the NIR, has stated that mobile units and expansion plans are in place — they’re just waiting for funds. But in the meantime, the public pays the price for the government’s financial mismanagement.
AT THE CENTER of this crisis are people like Musu Vai, a 70-year-old woman from Fiahma. She traveled across Monrovia in the hopes of registering so she could access her small savings through a BRAC-run microfinance program. “They say I should go get a citizen ID card before I get the money. They nah want voting card again,” she said, fatigued and in pain. “I don’t know anyone there to help me, and my head is turning, so I want to go back home.”
THESE ARE THE voices that should have been heard before this policy was launched. These are the citizens who need digital access the most — and yet they are the ones most at risk of being left behind.
THE MOST URGENT threat, however, is still to come. Under the executive order, all SIM cards must be linked to a national ID by August 1 — or face disconnection. In a country where mobile phones are lifelines for banking, communication, education, and safety, this could mean millions of Liberians will be cut off from the economy, their families, and emergency services.
THIS IS MORE than a policy misfire. It is a ticking time bomb that threatens the very fabric of national life.
THERE IS STILL time for a course correction — but the window is closing fast. First, the government must immediately extend the August 1 deadline.
CITIZENS CANNOT BE penalized for failures of infrastructure that were never theirs to fix. Second, the Boakai administration must settle the outstanding debt to Techno Brand to unlock withheld donor funding and allow the Registry to expand.
THIRD, THE GOVERNMENT should waive or subsidize the $5 registration fee for low-income Liberians. No citizen should be priced out of their right to be recognized. Fourth, there must be a crackdown on corruption at registration centers, with a transparent reporting and accountability system to investigate and punish staff who solicit bribes.
LASTLY, public awareness campaigns must be rolled out across urban and rural areas, ensuring that citizens are not just mandated to register, but informed and empowered to do so.
LIBERIA’s NATIONAL ID system can still be a cornerstone of inclusive digital governance. It can bring dignity, efficiency, and transparency to how the state interacts with its people. But only if it is implemented with urgency, empathy, and integrity.
RIGHT NOW, WHAT began as a digital dream is spiraling into a public nightmare — one where the most vulnerable are being left behind, businesses are compounding the burden, and public trust is being squandered. The time to act is now.
