The Angolan government has awarded a US$243-million contract to China National Electronics Import and Export Corp. to manage the country’s identification card system, Lusa reports.
The Portuguese news agency says the system will administer the country’s database of civil and criminal records, including the issue of birth certificates and identity cards.
The deal was confirmed in an Angolan presidential dispatch that authorises the Ministry of Finance to create a line of credit with a Chinese financial institution.
Angola has a network of 96 registration offices that issue identity cards but the flawed process leaves thousands of Angolans without any identification documents, Lusa says. Research by the United Nations Children’s Fund found that just 31 percent of Angolans under five have a birth certificate.
