The Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, Mateus Saize, announced on Friday (20) a massive civil registration campaign funded by the World Bank with approximately $9 million, aiming to reach up to 7 million citizens by December.
According to the minister, Mozambique faces “a very large civil identification deficit,” with a significant portion of the population still without official documents due to various factors limiting access to registration.
“We have conducted an assessment over the years, identified the main problems, and also the possible solutions to carry out a mass registration of the entire Mozambican population and provide the corresponding documents,” explained Mateus Saize.
As part of this strategy, a joint project was approved between the Ministry of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Interior, aiming to reverse the current service model.
“Normally, the population comes to the services. This time, we are reversing that logic. We will go to the people to promote the birth registration of our citizens,” stated the minister.
To this end, up to 500 mobile brigades will be created nationwide, traveling to districts, administrative posts, and local communities to ensure civil registration and issuance of identity cards (BI) on-site.
“We will reach citizens one by one. The brigades will be mixed: the Ministry of Justice will handle registration and deliver the certificate, while the Ministry of Interior will issue the BI at the same time,” the minister detailed.
He emphasized that all services provided under the campaign will be free for citizens requesting the document for the first time, with costs covered by the state through World Bank funding.
“No citizen will be charged. We will register and deliver the certificate completely free, and the first BI will also be exempt from payment,” assured Mateus Saize.
Text: Florença Nhabinde
