In Congo’s Lubumbashi, a gleaming $25 million shopping mall stands as a stark symbol of corruption. Built with funds originally allocated for a crucial national ID system, the mall instead benefits a small elite closely tied to former President Joseph Kabila, according to a joint investigation by Bloomberg News and Lighthouse Reports. This revelation comes at a time when Congo, one of the world’s poorest nations, grapples with persistent challenges such as hunger, unemployment, and rampant political violence.
The lack of a proper national ID system has exacerbated these existing problems, hindering access to essential services like opening bank accounts and receiving money from abroad. The situation has grown so dire that the World Bank, in a recent report, expressed concern that Congolese citizens are feeling like foreigners in their own land. The report highlighted the government’s inability to accurately determine the population, leaving key functions like tax collection and voter registration in a state of uncertainty. “It’s impossible to govern a country if you don’t know its population,” remarked Ithiel Bathumike, a researcher on biometric IDs and elections for Ebuteli, a Kinshasa-based research center. “How can you levy property tax if you don’t know who owns the land?”
The investigation has cast a spotlight on a $1.2 billion contract between the Congolese government and Idemia, a French biometrics company. The deal, aimed at developing a national ID system, has been met with widespread criticism due to its exorbitant price tag and opaque financing structure. A confidential memorandum from the National Office for Population Identification (ONIP) raised serious concerns, highlighting “flagrant overpricing” and the risk of the contract turning into an “enormous scam.”
The Congolese government has made repeated promises to establish a national ID program for over two decades. When President Felix Tshisekedi assumed office in 2019, he pledged to prioritize this initiative. However, the proposed cost of the project has ballooned to $1.2 billion, exceeding the original estimate by more than three times. Confidential documents obtained by Bloomberg and Lighthouse Reports reveal that the contract encompasses the cost of biometric registration kits, enrollment centers, and the initial production of ID cards for the Kinshasa elite. There are also concerns that the system could be used for creating surveillance watchlists, a claim that Idemia has denied.
The World Bank has declined to contribute to the project, citing the lack of a competitive tendering process. ONIP employees have voiced concerns about the potential for fraud, and the Congolese Inspectorate General of Finance (IGF) has initiated an investigation into the contract. The IGF has asserted that the Idemia-Afritech partnership lacks the necessary capital to execute the project and intends to charge the government exorbitant fees over time. The proposed infrastructure costs have also been deemed excessive, and the government’s funding mechanism has been labeled as “illegal or impossible.” Idemia has denied any involvement in the contract, while Afritech’s CEO has refused to respond to inquiries. ONIP has refrained from commenting on the matter, and President Tshisekedi’s spokesperson has emphasized that the presidency did not play a role in the ID contract negotiations.
