Digital IDs to Become Mandatory for School Registration in Addis Ababa

Digital ID (Fayda) registrations are poised to become a mandatory precondition for school registration in the coming academic year. While birth certificates have long been part of standard documentation practice for school registrations, the new ordinance looks to fortify the procedure.

The announcement was made two days ago as the Addis Ababa Civil Registration & Resident Services Agency briefed journalists on the Agency’s half-year performance. Yonas Alemayehu, Director General of the Agency, said close collaborations have been kicked off with schools to fully implement the procedure by next year. He laid out plans to introduce centralization and digitization of ID requirements as part of sweeping reforms taking place at the Agency.

“We will go fully digital in six months,” Yonas said.

The Director recalled that 21 of the 116 Woredas in the capital have gone fully digital with their cataloging of vital events during the pilot stage of the project. The Agency has implemented strict oversight over its employees, which led to criminal investigations and the suspension of nine staff members in six months. However, the number of residence IDs issued over the past six months underwent a 26.72% decline from the past year, with just 268,470 issued.

The Ethiopian government aims to register every Ethiopian above the age of five with a biometric digital ID.

The latest ordinance that places digital IDs as a precondition for school registration in the capital is part of a growing collaboration between the Agency and the Fayda project office. The Agency kicked off a partnership with the Fayda project office three months back aimed at accelerating registrations across the capital. Around 40% of the 1.8 million new registrants over the past two months have accessed services through the Agency. 

Yodahe Zemichael, Director of the Fayda Project office, underscored the importance of digital IDs at the start of a student’s academic career to avoid fraud and ensure the presence of a continuous record. He explained to attendees representing private education institutions last month that digital IDs add to the reliability of information about students.

Fayda registration has kicked up in gear over the past two years, with more than 11 million people onboarded on the road to 90 million. The World Bank green-lit a financial package of nearly 350 million dollars two years back helping scale up its national operations.

Fayda registration has become mandatory to open a new bank account in the capital while existing customers will be required to provide their digital IDs for continued access to banking services by next year. All government offices within the Addis Ababa City Administration also require Fayda registration to avail of services including tax, permits, and auctions.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) has previously described the Fayda project as the second most important undertaking by his government.