• Cameroon and South Korea have entered into an XAF 23.21 billion ($38 million) agreement to execute five development projects within the country, including three digitalisation projects. 

• Alamine Ousmane Mey, Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, confirmed that some of the funds will be allocated to the next phase of an ongoing project to upgrade and digitise the country’s civil status registration system.

• He added that $4.8 million out of the $38 million grant will be deployed to set up an efficient and secure foundational identity system for the country.

The second phase of the “e-Procurement System Development Project” in Cameroon will benefit from this development. This project aims to digitise the public contracts procurement system. It will receive $5.6 million from the grant to continue efforts to simplify procurement procedures, enhancing transparency and efficiency.

Per the Minister, a “Smart Campus” project, which will be funded with $8 million from the grant, is also included. The project will promote digital government efforts in public administration and modernise service delivery in the public sector.

The country implemented the master plan for the digitalisation of the civil registration system in 2018 forming a part of the Strategic Plan for the Rehabilitation of Civil Registration in Cameroon (2018-2022).

Furthermore, an interface connecting the civil status system and other sectors, including the national identity agency, ministries of justice, transport and health, was implemented under the Master Plan. A  pilot project using the OpenCRVS platform for birth registration has now been completed in 20 municipal councils in Cameroon.  

This project, tagged “Support Program for the Modernization of the Civil Registration System” (PAMEC), is supported by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). It also has the financial support of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

In August 2022, Cameroon signed a grant agreement totalling 1.683 billion FCFA ($ 2.8 million) for the support project to improve the country’s National Civil Status System.

Over time, the civil registration system has encountered challenges in recording births and deaths, with only half of all births and very few deaths documented. The lack of birth certificates has resulted in exclusions from essential services such as formal education, healthcare, travel privileges, voting rights, and the ability to open a bank account or acquire property.