STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- In Benin, undocumented residents now have entry to schooling, credit score, and important companies due to a nationwide ID reform.
- The federal government-led “C’est Moi” card, supported by the World Financial institution’s WURI challenge, has already reached greater than 7.7 million individuals.
- By facilitating entry to authorized identification, the challenge is paving the way in which to employment, entrepreneurship, and financial inclusion for tens of millions of Beninese individuals.
Kouatena, North West Benin. Simplice, 11, proudly holds his “C’est Moi” card. For this pupil, this doc is way more than an ID: it’s the key to passing his main faculty certificates. Not way back, within the absence of a start certificates, his academic future was in peril of coming to an abrupt finish. His mom, Gnondo Bio Kpera, remembers the anguish of those inconceivable steps: “Earlier than, we needed to hassle ourselves and spend cash. Now, our kids get them with out problem and with out paying something.”
One card, lives reworked
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Pélagie Sagbo, a palm oil dealer in Adjarra, within the southeast of the nation, dreamed of increasing her enterprise. With out an identification card, nothing was doable: no credit score or checking account. The day she acquired the “C’est Moi” card, the whole lot modified: “As quickly as I obtained one, my life modified. I used to be capable of take out a mortgage, open my very own store, and now I handle my kids.”
Augustine Assogba, a haberdashery vendor, tells an identical story. With out an ID, her kids have been repeatedly expelled from faculty. “Due to the “C’est Moi” card, I acquired coaching, opened a Cell Cash account, and acquired a mortgage. Now I’ve my very own enterprise and pay for my kids’s education. I by no means thought this doable.”
These tales illustrate the imaginative and prescient of the Regional Distinctive Identification Mission (WURI): to make identification a proper for all. By facilitating entry to jobs, credit score, and entrepreneurship, the challenge immediately hyperlinks to the World Financial institution Group’s agenda for job creation and financial inclusion–equipping everybody to take part totally within the formal financial system and construct sustainable livelihoods.
We enable everybody to entry socioeconomic companies, open an account, and personal a cell phone. We obtain this due to our skills, the nationwide ecosystem, and our companions such because the WURI challenge.
Aristide Adjinacou, Director Normal of the Company for the Identification of Individuals (ANIP)
Outcomes on the nationwide stage
In only a few years, Benin has gone from being a rustic the place 1 / 4 of the inhabitants had no start certificates to a nation the place identification is a shared proper. Practically 99% of the inhabitants is now biometrically enrolled, and greater than 7.7 million individuals have their Private Identification Quantity (NPI) as of the top of Could 2025. Greater than 6.1 million certificates have been issued freed from cost.
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Aristide Adjinacou, Director Normal of the Company for the Identification of Individuals (ANIP), a associate within the challenge, explains: “We enable everybody to entry socioeconomic companies, open an account, and personal a cell phone. We obtain this due to our skills, the nationwide ecosystem, and our companions such because the WURI challenge.”
The challenge additionally helps the federal government’s security web packages and the operationalization of the Single Social Registry, thereby strengthening governance and coverage planning.
Financed by the World Financial institution to the tune of $273 million–including $45 million for Benin–the WURI challenge is benefiting 5 different West African international locations: Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Niger, and Togo.
In Benin, the “C’est Moi” card is opening a door by offering entry to schooling, entrepreneurship, employment, and citizenship. With official identification, individuals can open financial institution accounts to fund their initiatives, signal formal employment contracts, or legally register their companies to achieve broader markets and create job alternatives for others. Every card represents an individual with desires and ambitions, and it embodies the hope for a future the place having an identification is step one towards constructing a livelihood.
