Digital Government to nab identity thieves and fraudsters

In a bid to eliminate fraudsters and illegal immigrants, the government has rolled out Integrated Population Registration System (IPRS) to provide organized central citizentry database. Government agencies and institutions will gradually switch to digital files away from tedious manual data searches that have been the norm for years.

The government is counting on the new system to help curb insecurity in the country since henceforth; newborns will have their identity details registered and in return receive an 11-digit code that will remain their identity code forever. Any additional information about an individual will be updated periodically over the years.

With eased access to huge data, both private and public sectors will benefit from the system in a case information about a person is needed in real time during any process. Among other processes eased up by the system will be Election registry in which the system will automatically erase names of deceased individuals who would be used to deter population information during polls.

The IPRS project process will have two compartments; one being a national registry entailing all Kenyan Citizens and foreign residents in the country and the other giving each citizen an identifier code assigned at birth and is used in lifetime transactions for reference.

The National population registry will have primary and secondary agencies dealing with Civil Registration Department, National Registration Bureau, Immigration Department and Department of Refugees’ Affair for the primary phase. Secondary agencies will deal with National Social Security Fund (NSSF), KRA and NHIF registry.

Thus far, KCB Group and City Hall have used the system through mobile money services and e-wallet respectively to man huge population. Sometime last year, Lands’ ministry lost about 10,000 files during a ten day audit which was believed to be an effort to cover corruption cartels. Cases like lost files in government agencies will be a thing of the past supposing the registration system goes through.

According to audits done on different government ministries, the government is losing large amounts of money due to identity theft and imposter tendencies. The move will also be an upper hand to better business revenues for citizens inclusive of lower loan rates by financial institutions. This is because small and medium business structures contribute more to the Kenyan economy but lack formal identity therefore limited access to credit.

Banks will have more confidence giving loans to both individuals and established firms referring to the digital files than the current situation where identity cards play guarantee to the creditor.

 

 

Winfred Kuria854 Posts

Winfred Kuria is a self-constituted web content writer in charge of Tech News and Events Publicity at Kachwanya.com. She will communicate in the simplest way possible with an aim of changing the world one mind at a time.

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