Africa-Press – Liberia. The National Identification Registry (NIR) has launched a pilot project that will allow for issuance of national identification cards to Liberians living in communities along our border with the Republic of Sierra Leone. This project, which will be implemented over the next sixty days, is expected to set the basis for possible use of the national identification card as an acceptable travel document within the Mano River Union, comprising of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire.
It can be recalled that a delegation from the Government of Liberia, headed by the Executive Director of the NIR and comprising a representative from the Liberia Immigration Service, visited Sierra Leone from September 8 – 9, 2021, at the invitation of the Mano River Union Secretariat for consultations on use of national ID cards as travel documents between Liberia and Sierra Leone. That meeting was chaired by the Mano River Union Secretary General, Ambassador Medina A. Wesseh. The Government of Sierra Leone was represented by Hon. Mohammed Massaquoi, Director General of Sierra Leone’s National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA).
These consultations were generally fruitful and pointed to early indications that Liberia and Sierra Leone could be a test case for use of the national Identification cards as travel documents within the Mano River Union basin. Such achievement will ease travel hurdles within the sub-region, promote greater integration, and support the broader objectives of the Economic Community of West African States for free movement of its citizens.
The NIR hopes that this undertaking will provide citizens living in these border communities easy access to the national ID card and lay the practical foundation for the ongoing discussions between the authorities of Sierra Leone and Liberia under the auspices of the Mano River Union Secretariat.
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