Kenyan ID is Most Vulnerable in Africa

Kenyan ID is Most Vulnerable in Africa

Kenyan ID is Most Vulnerable in Africa

With a 25% fraud rate, the Kenyan National Identity Card has been identified as the most susceptible and sought after by con artists in Africa.The Smile ID Identity Fraud Report ascribed the ranking to the careless discarding of outdated identification documents that end up in the wrong hands.

Additionally, an increase in population means an increase in IDs which raises the rate at which they are stolen, duplicated or lost. It also increases the chances of the holder falling victim to fraud attempts.

“Overall fraud rates in Kenya remain stubbornly high. There are several contributing factors, one of which is the continued prevalence of old National ID cards which are constructed of black and white paper images, laminated in plastic,” reads part of the report.

A little contribution to the decline in fraud was also made by the implementation of Huduma Namba and Maisha Namba throughout succeeding governments. Sections of Kenya have protested unapproved data collection, and both initiatives have encountered strong legal opposition. Passports, voter IDs, driver’s licenses, and refugee IDs were among the various documents that were falsified in Kenya.

Kenya, however, unveiled additional initiatives to improve the current ID systems and lower the fraud rate.The government has mandated that newly issued IDs have expiration dates and be renewed every ten years. The microchips in the new passports will resemble those issued overseas.

According to the survey, there has been a rise in identity fraud in several countries, including South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Congo, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Botswana.With average fraud rates of 30% and 29%, respectively, East and Central Africa lead the continent in 2023.

According to Smile ID, there might be more fraud in Africa, particularly in the area of biometric fraud, which includes spoofing, duplication, no face match, and generative AI.”Biometric fraud is typically harder to detect without sophisticated preventative techniques and more intricate than document fraud. A portion of the report stated, “It involves the unauthorized and fraudulent use of biometric data for identity verification, such as fingerprints, facial features, iris patterns, or voice.

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