A national registry is not an IT project. It is infrastructure — as foundational to how a country functions as its roads. It will outlive the administration that commissioned it, the vendor that built it and most of the technology choices inside it.
That longevity demands infrastructure thinking: open standards, data ownership that stays with the institution, architecture that survives vendor transitions, and documentation treated as a deliverable rather than an afterthought.
Building for the second decade
The test of digital public infrastructure is not the launch. It is year eight — when the original team is gone and the system either remains an asset or has become a hostage. Every design decision should be made with year eight in the room.
Africa's institutions deserve platforms built to that standard. It is the standard we hold ourselves to.
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