Gongloe Urges Scrutiny of $54.7 Million National ID Concession
Cllr. Tiawan Saye Gongloe speaking at a public event (file photo). Photo: Karweaye12, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Prominent Liberian lawyer Cllr. Tiawan Saye Gongloe has called for rigorous legislative review of a proposed national identification concession with an Austrian contractor, citing unresolved questions over jobs, revenue-sharing and biometric data protection.
Prominent Liberian lawyer and anti-corruption advocate Cllr. Tiawan Saye Gongloe is calling for rigorous legislative scrutiny of a roughly $54.7 million national identification concession before it is ratified, raising a series of unanswered questions about jobs, revenue-sharing and the protection of citizens' biometric data.
The build-operate-transfer concession, with Austrian contractor OeSD International GmbH, would cover enrollment, biometric deduplication, and the issuance of physical and digital identification credentials through Liberia's National Identification Registry (NIR), according to trade publication ID Tech Wire. The contractor was selected in August after Liberia's Public Procurement and Concessions Commission rejected an earlier restricted-bidding approach in 2025 and required competitive bidding instead.
According to The New Dawn Liberia, Gongloe outlined five areas he wants examined before lawmakers ratify the deal: the number and nationality mix of jobs created, transparency in how revenue will be shared, provisions for transferring technical skills to Liberians, the security and storage of citizens' biometric data, and whether sovereign government functions will remain under Liberian control. He cited a February 2026 Supreme Court decision requiring concession agreements to comply with Liberian law.
"The better model is simple: bring the technology, train Liberians, transfer the skills, protect our revenue and sovereign data, and keep sovereign governmental functions under Liberian control," Gongloe said, according to the paper, adding that his concerns "should not be interpreted as opposition to foreign investment."
Exact figures on jobs, revenue-sharing terms and where biometric data would be stored have not been publicly disclosed, and Gongloe's intervention is itself a call for those details to be established before the concession is finalized. The agreement remains awaiting ratification, and its terms could still change as legislators review it.