Greetings to steemworld!

To a Cameroonian, a national identity card is like the password to an e-mail account. They are valid for 10 years. Without one, the person is in for a lot of trouble if found in the two English regions where separatist fighters kidnap civilians and divide their identification documents – especially when travelling around the country.

In Cameroon, law No. 90-42 of 19 December 1990 says “whoever does not possess a national identity card shall be punished with imprisonment for from three months to one year or with a fine of 50,000 to 100,000 francs CFA or with both such imprisonment and fine”.

But obtaining digital national identity cards in Cameroon has become burdensome and is now a near nightmare.

It is common to spend days waiting for public officials to sign and issue the identity cards. Files often go missing, forcing many to start the tedious bureaucratic process all over.

I have been going there several times to collect my digital identity card, but each time I reached, I am told it is not yet ready. I am always asked to extend the receipt I was issued after going through the cumbrous process of applying for the card. My temporal identification has been extended 5 times. Awwwwww sad right?

There are many transactions, mostly financial, which I cannot carry out with the receipt except I obtain the digital ID card. I'm just one of thousands of Cameroonians who find themselves in this dilemma.
However, authorities charged with the issuing of digital national identity cards say the delay, and sometimes graft in the process, is not of their making.

Before 2016, it was a common phenomenon in Cameroon to see an individual with more than two identification papers. Although identity theft seemed to have eaten deep into the Cameroonian society, the government did not relent its efforts in combating the incidence through several security measures such as the computerisation of essential documents like the national identity card and passport.

In this light, we hope something should definitely be done if not, identification theft might be on the rise again because after waiting two or more years with a temporal identification card, one can be frustrated to redo a new one.

#betterlife
#thediarygame
#cameroon
#steemexclusive
#steemcameroon
#steemafrica
#krusuccess