Uncollected ID cards: give the identity a use first
Source: Biometric Update, “Africa’s uncollected national ID cards raise questions about mass issuance” (Ayang Macdonald, 12 November 2026)
As reported by Biometric Update, millions of printed national ID cards wait in offices across Africa: more than 550,000 in Kenya, about two million in Tanzania, more than five million in Uganda, hundreds of thousands in Cameroon and Ghana. I shared my views with Ayang Macdonald for that article. This page gives the full reasoning, with the field cases behind it.
These views are my own. They engage no government, client or partner, and the countries I cite as examples are named only where the facts are public.
An uncollected card is a signal about use
In Tanzania, research by the ID authority NIDA found that many people skip the card because the ID number already opens the services they need. The identity works; the card has no immediate use. NIDA has been very active on collection, with SMS reminders, deadlines and, in 2025, a suspension of numbers for people who did not collect. The backlog stays at about two million. The root cause sits in the use of the card.
People are rational. When the card has no use today, and collecting it costs a trip, a fee or a day of work, they wait until a bank, an exam, a SIM registration or an election asks for it. In Cameroon, the receipt has long played that role, and people come back for the card only when they have no choice.
The press and public forums add the delivery side: SMS that never arrive or point to the wrong office (Tanzania, Uganda), delays of months or years, people who moved or fled after enrolment, informal payments at the counter, data errors on the card.
The indicator to watch is how often people use their identity.
1. Print on demand removes the waste
In a Pacific island country where I work, about half of the people registered have never collected a card, most likely because they had no immediate need. The cards are printed on demand, so there is no waste: the identity exists, and the card is printed the day the person asks. The trade off: someone who wants a card later has to travel, or wait for the yearly mobile team.
2. Instant issuance works
I led four projects in South America: the eID and the ePassport in Uruguay, and the ePassport in Peru for the Ministry of Interior and for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. People receive the document at once, when they need it. In Peru, a traveller who had left the passport at home could get one at the airport before the flight. It is technically possible and very practical for citizens.
3. Instant issuance changes behaviour, so size it for the peaks
The side effect: people learn to come at the last minute and see the document as a service owed on the day. When an office is closed, or a system goes down and a traveller misses a flight, the anger is immediate and the pressure on the institution is huge. Instant issuance has to be sized for the peaks: before elections, before holidays, before deadlines. It needs spare capacity, a fallback plan for outages, and clear opening hours.
4. A temporary certificate absorbs the peaks
A temporary certificate, fast to issue and valid for a short time, absorbs peaks and outages. Its limit: it carries fewer security features, so it fits only some uses. For passports, it serves only as an emergency travel document to return home after a loss abroad.
5. Put the security in the personal data
Many cards arrive late, or never, because of the card itself: stock limits, shortages, disputes with the supplier. When the security sits in the personalised content, for example a QR code with signed data as in the ICAO Visible Digital Seal, any smartphone becomes a verification tool. The blank card then only needs to be robust, and often attractive. Applied fully, this logic makes the blank card far less exposed to shortages and to a single supplier.
6. The credential comes back, in digital form
The physical card first evolved from carrying data to helping authenticate the person, with the data checked online through APIs. That model is now giving way to the digital credential, for privacy and for cyber security. Each API call needs a consent mechanism, which is hard to run in some contexts, and each API is a door for attackers. With today’s AI, attacks are faster and cheaper, so the best protection is a small attack surface. A verifiable credential is checked locally by its signature, with no call to the central database at each check.
7. Move step by step, so nobody is left out
The digital credential is the future: issued at once, with no trip. It must sit next to a physical option during a long transition, or it excludes people without a smartphone, without connectivity, older people and rural people. France shows the pace: the health insurance card has a digital version open to everyone since 2025, the plastic card stays, and cards from 1998 still work, because doctors and hospitals need years to equip themselves.
What this means for ID authorities
Give the identity a use first, and the card will follow. Print what people ask for, when they ask. Put the security in the data. Size counters and systems for the peaks. Move to digital credentials step by step. And build local capacity, so each country controls its system and can change its model when citizens do not follow.
Sources: Biometric Update, 12 November 2026; Biometric Update on Tanzania, 26 October 2026; Daily News Tanzania, 19 April 2025; ICAO Doc 9303, Part 13 (Visible Digital Seal).
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