The World Bank has once again issued a strong warning to Sierra Leone, this time over the country’s growing digital and financial exclusion directly linked to the limited ownership of national identification cards.
In its newly released Global Findex Report, the Bank raised serious concerns that Sierra Leone continues to lag behind its low- and middle-income counterparts in providing government-issued IDs to its citizens. While 95% of adults in similar economies have some form of ID, a significant number of Sierra Leoneans remain unregistered effectively sidelining them from banking services, mobile money, formal employment, and even healthcare.
“ID is no longer optional—it is a prerequisite for inclusion in today’s digital economy,” stated officials from the World Bank’s Identification for Development (ID4D) program.
The report paints a troubling picture of economic and infrastructure failures. Unlike in other countries where documentation issues are the main hurdle, in Sierra Leone the barriers are more fundamental: high registration costs and the distance to enrollment centers are the primary reasons many remain without ID. These issues reflect persistent systemic challenges that continue to undermine development efforts.
The Bank warns that the consequences are far-reaching. In Sub-Saharan Africa, one in three adults without a national ID cannot access financial services a reality that is acutely felt in Sierra Leone, where digital finance is increasingly positioned as a driver of inclusive growth.
Still, the report presents a curious finding: compared to neighboring countries, fewer ID-less adults in Sierra Leone reported being denied access to government services. Analysts believe this could either suggest that the government has developed some workarounds or that there are critical data gaps in the country’s service delivery reporting.
In response, the World Bank is calling on Sierra Leone to urgently lower the cost of ID acquisition, expand registration access in rural areas, and treat national identification as a fundamental pillar of its development agenda.
This is not the first time the World Bank has raised red flags about Sierra Leone’s development bottlenecks, but the latest warning underscores how a simple ID card—or lack thereof can determine access to life-changing services. As the country pushes for digital transformation, the Bank insists that inclusive ID systems must be prioritized to avoid leaving the most vulnerable behind.
