Smart Zambia Institute is seeking an international system integrator to deploy, customize, and integrate a MOSIP-based digital identity platform with the country’s civil registration infrastructure. The project is backed by over $100 million from the World Bank’s International Development Association under the Digital Zambia Acceleration Project, and targets full digital ID rollout by the end of 2026.
SZI National Coordinator Percy Chinyama said the program is being built on a home-grown model: Zambian developers will construct the core system, with international partners providing supplementary expertise. “What we are doing now, with the financing we received from the World Bank, is building an ecosystem,” Chinyama told state broadcaster ZNBC. “We have insisted that this system be built by Zambians. Most importantly, we want it to use open standards so that we are not locked in and can maintain and sustain it for the sake of long-term sustainability.”
The procurement covers development, deployment, customization, and integration of foundational digital ID, civil registration and vital statistics core modules, backend infrastructure, and enrollment kits. The government’s insistence on open standards is designed to prevent vendor lock-in and ensure the system can be maintained domestically over the long term. Existing certified MOSIP system integrators include Laxton, Veridos, NCINGA, and Credence ID.
The initial goal is to provide 2 million individuals with digital IDs, with 80 percent of Zambia’s roughly 20 million citizens integrated into the digital economy by year end. Chinyama framed the digital ID as a financial inclusion tool as much as an identity document: “Once you have the digital ID, it will be something you can use across different aspects of your life where identification is required. We want to reach a point where everyone with a bank account is properly identified. Most importantly, one of the functional strengths of the digital ID is that simply having it can automatically make you bankable.”
The Digital Zambia Acceleration Project is part of Phase 2 of the Inclusive Digitalization in Eastern and Southern Africa multiphase programmatic approach, which carries a total envelope of $2.48 billion. The institute completed MOSIP training for healthcare integration earlier this year, and the program comes as other African nations pursue similar infrastructure, including Lesotho’s MOSIP agreement with UNICEF.
Sources: CoinGeek, Smart Zambia Institute, World Bank
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By Cass Kennedy
