Presenting the Bill to Parliament prior to passage into law, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Retired Major Paolo Conteh said among other things that “the Bill will inform national and productive electronic data that will be used by various sectors for the planning and development of the nation, particularly for the consolidation of a national registration, which is currently being done in a scattered manner and by different entities”.

Members of Parliament who contributed to the protracted debate before the enactment of the Bill welcomed and appreciated the trend in which the GoSL (Government of Sierra Leone) is taking its developmental strides, cognizant of the registration of all citizens and non-citizens compulsorily and for other nationally productive purposes connected therewith.

Both Leaders of the House acknowledged the provisions embedded in the National Civil Registration Act, 2016 to which they referred to “the ID cards are going to serve a multi-purpose function that is similar to that of the social security number in the USA”.

After the Bill had gone through the first and second readings, and the Committee of the Whole House, it was unanimously passed into law with some amendments.