Gabon gets $68.5M World Bank loan to facilitate access to legal ID, digital services

A loan agreement has been concluded between the World Bank and the central African nation of Gabon for the implementation of a project dubbed “Digital Gabon.” The key objective is to facilitate access to legal identity and select digital government services, according to a World Bank press release.

The World Bank Board of Directors had approved the loan in 2021 for the project that involves five components and which is expected to run till June 2026. The agreement was sealed on December 28, 2023, in the capital Libreville.

Observers believe this project is very important for Gabon given its lingering problems with legal identity. The country has not issued ID cards to its citizens since 2012, with several episodes of failed government promises.

Gabon’s Economy Minister Mays Mouissi signed the loan agreement on behalf of the Gabonese government, while the World Bank Country Director for Gabon Cheick Kante did so for the Bretton Woods institution.

“The country has made considerable progress in high-speed broadband digital infrastructure. Moving forward, this operation will support the country’s digital transformation, which is critical to promote opportunities for all Gabonese citizens and residents. It will benefit individuals and businesses by improving the affordability, availability, and quality of public service delivery” says Kante.

According to an abstract of the project, the five components of Digital Gabon include creating an enabling environment for accelerated digital transformation; modernizing legal identity systems with the goal of establishing modern, robust, digitalized legal ID systems to provide all persons in Gabon with unique and inclusive legal ID credentials; digitally transforming the public administration and select services to improve their efficiency using digital solutions under a user-centric approach; enhancing citizen engagement, implementation support, monitoring and evaluation; and putting in place a contingent emergency response mechanism.

The project, which also seeks to modernize the country’s civil registration system, will also make sure Gabonese are able to digitally access important services such as social protection, health insurance, public procurement, and human resource management information systems, among others.

In December, the World Bank also approved a $40 million loan for Honduras for the implementation of legal ID and digital government service programs.