Meeting in plenary session, Friday October 11, 2024 in Ouagadougou, the deputies of the Transitional Legislative Assembly unanimously adopted the law relating to the unique electronic identification of the natural person.
Burkina now has a legal and institutional framework for basic electronic unique identification of natural persons. The law was voted unanimously by 69 deputies of the Transitional Legislative Assembly (ALT) during a plenary session, held on Friday, October 11, 2024, in Ouagadougou. Indeed, the present law submitted to the vote includes 36 articles divided into ten chapters. The session was chaired by the head of the Burki-Nabè Parliament, Ousmane Bougouma. Addressing members of the government, represented by the Minister of Digital Transition, Posts and Electronic Communications, Aminata Zerbo and her colleagues, the president of the ALT indicated that he hopes that through The adoption of this law, the executive will have control over the population, not only to plan areas of development, but also security issues. For him, the unique electronic identifier of the natural person is important and in doing so, there is no reason for certain services to remain on the sidelines. The data to be provided during registration are first and last names, date of birth, gender and optional data, telephone number, nationality, place of birth, etc. In reality, explained the minister in charge of digital transition, Aminata Zerbo, the government is committed to providing the country with a unique electronic identification system for the person which will serve as a basis for the identification of other systems. This unique identifier is a random number assigned to any Burkinabè inside or outside.
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Listening to the minister, this number will serve as a basis for identifying other identification numbers. It in no way replaces other identification documents but guarantees the uniqueness of the person in the databases. Also, she insisted,
the unique identifier facilitates access to a person’s data to collect information in order to provide them with other services.
“There is a large portion of our population that has no proof of identity. It is estimated at around 20%. This process will allow them to provide proof
identification. This proof will be issued free of charge in order to allow people in vulnerable situations to ultimately be able to access basic social services more easily,” underlined the minister in charge of the digital transition. This aims to allow the government to have reliable data on its population.
Like other countries, this data, confided the minister, is important for planning projects and programs and implementing effective governance policies. However, measures are taken, according to her, to ensure the security of the information system with regard to fairly sensitive personal data. With the implementation of the WURI project, a pilot identification phase is expected. Subsequently, massive enrollment will take place across the entire territory with the aim of being able to enlist at least 80% of the population. “Once we have established this base, the Independent National Electoral Commission will be able to rely on this reliable data to develop the electoral register. We will no longer need to systematically do registrations for each election. This saves money,” she said. Regarding people in areas with a high security challenge, in collaboration with the ministry in charge of defense, initiatives are also taken to facilitate the process while taking into account the realities on the ground.