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Over 230 children walking on the planet are without legal forms of Identification and a total of 1.1 billion people living on this planet don’t have ID’s which automatically deprives them of the right to basic amenities of life.
The figures provided above were fetched from a publication by the World Bank on the 12th of October, 2017. Governments will only be responsible for the people on their records and as long as an individual fails to provide a verifiable means of identification the government of any country will take no full responsibility for such. I live in Nigeria; I was born here and never enrolled for an ID until I was over 18 years of age.
During the time when I was without an ID, I couldn’t enjoy most of the benefits and services that the government of my country has made available for all citizens. My birth certificate says I was born in Nigeria but that wasn’t enough it was my duty as a citizen to enrol and get an ID. Over and over time, I have walked into the bank and one of the basic questions I get asked is whether or not I have a valid means of Identification; and it doesn’t matter how much the cheque is worth, as long as I fail to provide that plastic card, the cashier is compelled by law not to attend to me. This is why millions of adult go through the stress of standing on long queues just to lay their hands on that piece of plastic card.
This is my country and I’m a citizen here by birth. Now think of a situation where I didn’t come from here. Imagine what my experience would be if I walked into the bank or any other corporate organization in a foreign country and I have to face the trauma of rejection because they say I’m “invincible”. It is important to know that the government will always prioritize the interests of the citizens they know above that of the citizens they are not sure of, and I don’t blame them because you could be anybody in disguise.
The Tey Experience
Tey el-Rjunla expressed his grievances during the time when he had to get a driver’s license after his work contract expired in the Netherlands. He was asked for his birth certificate which according to him was destroyed in Kuwait during the gulf way in 1990 and since he couldn’t provide the lady at the enrolment center with a valid birth certificate, she had to tag his place of birth as “unknown”. Then he was tagged as “the invincible man” though he had no superpowers. Not because he was from space, but because he lost his documents during a war in his home country.
A lot of people suffer from this same fate in various parts of the world. No record of where they are from or how they got to where they currently are. Having no birth certificate has a ripple effect, on your access to getting many other legal documents and civil benefits. I remember one of the basic requirements during my freshman year at the university’s admission office was to provide my birth certificate and some reference letters. The papers given to my parents at birth weren’t really durable so we couldn’t present them anymore. I had to travel back to my hometown to revisit the birth registration center just to get another copy of my birth certificate. Remember? some people unlike me, can’t even go home because going back home could cost them their lives. So not being able to provide that piece of paper could mean having no access to basic or advanced education.
Sometimes one could also enter the bank to resolve some financial complications and to start with the process of resolving these complications customer care representatives on a normal day, would ask for an affidavit of age declaration or birth certificates. I have a friend who had her money stuck in a bank for months just because she couldn’t provide the required documents sooner. Meanwhile, she needed to use the funds urgently. What if she had lost those documents forever? That means that some properties that rightfully belong to her would never be claimed because she lost her documents.
Being invincible also means you can’t have a bank account. So if you are abroad and your family intends to send you some funds for your sustenance, you can’t receive funds because you don’t have a bank account. Or say you are working abroad and would like to send money to your family back in Syria, Libya or The Philippines, it is just impossible because you can’t have your own bank account.
However, with the introduction of blockchain technology and digital currencies, the era of permanent and resilient identities is finally here. You don’t have to depend on a non-durable piece of paper or some plastic cards to verify your identity. All you need now is to access the blockchain anywhere in the world and your documents will be presented in an intact form. This is what Tykn is all about; fetching your legal ID’s and data through a mobile app (The Ana mobile App) that is built on blockchain technology.
With Tykn we can wave behind us all the frustrations of lost identities and complications in terms of our attempt to identify with our governments, should any war or crisis come up.
This will aid the victims of missing documents in Africa, Asia and other third-world countries to find their voices among their own people.