ID4Africa, the organization that promotes the transparent and responsible adoption of digital ID management in the service of development in Africa, has released a detailed annual survey of African governments focused on understanding the continent’s identification requirements.

The survey found that Africa’s priorities are focused on pragmatically putting in place and operationalizing robust, high coverage identification systems. The survey also found that government priorities seem to be driven by national concerns and not by regional or global considerations.

According to the survey, 85 percent of respondents believe that their respective country’s healthcare systems are in a dire need of “a functional, modern and responsive ID scheme” to deal with a myriad of applications within the healthcare sector.

Sixty-five percent of respondents said they were willing to adopt cloud-based identity solutions if certain security requirements are considered, and if more education by service providers is offered.

Fifty-three percent of respondents expressed the belief that mobile ID will become more important than physical ID in 10 years, although most governments still hold the strong belief that plastic ID will not be eliminated in the near or mid-term, due to illiteracy and low network and smart device penetration.