This archive report was first published on 23 August 2019.
On August 23, 2019, Kiva and the Sierra Leone government launched a national digital identity platform to boost financial inclusion in the West African country.
The National Digital Identity Platform (NDIP), a blockchain-based decentralized digital identity platform, is a project of the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Sierra Leone, and supported by Kiva with support from the U.N. Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP).
“With this partnership in Sierra Leone, we hope to carve a path to a system of global identity and federated credit history,” said Kiva CEO Neville Crawley. “This can unlock capital for the populations who need it most, allowing lenders to massively increase services and the flow of funds to the world’s unbanked.”
The NDIP will help develop digital credit histories for every citizen, improving access to and cost of credit as well as enable them to access basic facilities such as finance, health, education, and eGovernment.
Sierra Leone’s President, Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio, said the launch was the first big step towards meeting his vision of ‘deploying the credit bureau of the future’ as it will radically change Sierra Leone’s financial inclusion landscape, and make financial services, e.g. savings and loans, accessible and affordable to every Sierra Leonean.
The NDIP will power Digital Know Your Customer (eKYC) within the financial sector and will accelerate financial inclusion in the country.
