After Pilot’s Success, TECH5 Proceeds to ‘Pre-launch’ Phase of Ethiopia’s National ID Program

“The inclusive future, a vision which we very much share with the Ethiopian National ID, is happening today, with the implementation of a universal digital identity that is easily accessible and controlled solely by a citizen.” – Rahul Parthe, CTO, Co-founder, Chairman,TECH5

The Ethiopian government’s pilot of a biometric national ID was a success, and TECH5 is moving on to the next phase of its development, the company has announced.

The program is dubbed the National ID Program of the Ethiopian Government Entity, or NIDP Ethiopia. It entails the enrolment of citizens’ biometrics, including face, fingerprint, and iris data, which are then used to ensure that every record in the system is unique.

TECH5 announced its involvement in the program in January, when a pilot was just getting underway. Its technology plays a critical role, with the TECH5 SDK being leveraged to collect participants’ biometrics, and the T5-ABIS Biometric Engine being used to ensure the uniqueness of every profile registered in the national ID system.

From there, the T5-IDencode solution, integrated with the Modular Open-Source Identity Platform (MOSIP), is used to generate and issue digital IDs to each participant. Individuals can use their digital IDs for identity verification through any mobile device running an authorized verification application.

Now, TECH5 is reporting that the pilot program was successful, and that its technologies have been approved for use in the “pre-launch” phase of the Ethiopian National ID.

“The inclusive future, a vision which we very much share with the Ethiopian National ID, is happening today, with the implementation of a universal digital identity that is easily accessible and controlled solely by a citizen,” said TECH5 CTO, Chairman, and co-founder Rahul Parthe. “We are glad to participate in this project leveraging MOSIP, the open platform in which TECH5 believes very much and has invested in over the years – indeed our ABIS and digital ID technologies were among the first to be integrated into MOSIP.”

Elaborating on the National ID Program, NIDP Technology Director Eyob Alemu said that the first million digital IDs are expected to be issued “over the coming months,” with the government planning to “move steadily” from there toward the goal of issuing digital IDs to all of Ethiopia’s 100 million residents.

–

July 18, 2022 – by Alex Perala