Angola increases national identity card issuance capacity to 60,000 daily

Angola has increased its national daily capacity for issuing identity cards (Bilhete de Identidade) from 12,000 to 60,000 documents through technological modernization and decentralization. The country now possesses printers for issuance in all 21 provinces, with nine located in Luanda.

Despite this national increase, regional disparities persist. In Moxico province, capacity remains limited, with the municipality of Luena currently operating only one printer. Local production in Moxico was reported at approximately 250 to 300 cards per day in July. To address these gaps, authorities plan to install a second printer in Moxico and are working to equip an issuance post in Lucusse, expected to be operational within two weeks.

The expansion is supported by a legal framework, specifically Law No. 8/2021, which modernized the identity card to include biometric elements such as fingerprints, facial geometry, and iris patterns. This legislation establishes the electronic identity card as legally equivalent to the physical document and mandates interoperability between national identity systems and other government databases, including tax and social protection systems.