Hello Beautiful steemians. I’m once again glad to be hear sharing with you guys(family of Steemit and steem Cameroon).i will be talking on identity document (ID) commonly called id card by many. Most persons do not know more about identity document or paper here in Cameroon. With the situation in the country now we all know of the national identity cards.

First what is identity paper?

Identity document or paper is any official paper that is used to prove an individual’s identity. It mostly carries information about the person’s name, date of birth, identification number, gender, photo of the person.
Other documents that can be used like ID worldwide are
International passport
Driver’s license
In some cases birth certificate
School ID etc.

Brief history about identity paper

The ideal of using ID started a long time ago with the use of passports, which was introduced by King Henry V of England. Then later photography came in to play and photos were added to passports. Till day different forms of id has come up in different countries with law backing them.
In Cameroon the top of all identification papers is the national id card which is a small rectangle hard paper which carries information of full names ,date of birth ,father and mother’s names, occupation ,address ,height ,sex, signature of bearer, date of issue, date of expiration, authority and id number.
Sometime a child’s birth certificate is used as id. Most students below the age of 18 do use their school id.
All ID cards in Cameroon are made at any police station which you are given a receipt which will last for a period of three months, which you then go back to the post and get you original id card which will expire after 10 years.

Procedure of getting an id card in Cameroon

First you have to be a Cameroonian then you need a certified photocopy of your birth certificate and a court judgment showing you not a criminal. A birth certificate is been issued by the local council of any area the only requirement to get one is a birth card from the hospital in which a child was born in.

Conclusion

For me I do see the system Cameroon do use a very poor because anybody be it a Cameroonian or not can get a national id because if we can put in place a system in which we share data nationwide so that from birth your information is entered and at any time the concern authorities can lay hands on we will surely reduce the level of fraud in the process of getting an id. If other papers like passports can be used it will go a long way to help because the presence system is very slow we still have people that have gone for years till waiting for their id card .