Nadra looks to upgrade biometric contract with unnamed “French firm”

The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) is set to upgrade a contract with an unnamed “French firm” in regards to its technological biometric needs.

According to a report in Dawn.com, Nadra was recently looking to sign a new contract with another company, but decided to engage the “French firm” with which it has already done business.

BiometricUpdate.com was unable to ascertain which company this unnamed “French firm” represents, though it’s suspected to be Morpho – a large French multinational, with extensive services related to biometrics and electronic identification as well as electronic documents. Neither Nadra nor Morpho was available to speak with me at the time of publishing this article.

Tariq Malik, Nadra’s Chairman, spoke with Dawn.com regarding the upgrading of its system and the new contract and said that previously, Nadra was unable to negotiate directly with International companies, though a governmental change has recently made that possible.

“If the French company upgrades the facility, Nadra will be able to avoid the hectic procedure of engaging a new firm,” Malik is quoted to have said. “However, the rate to be quoted by the French firm should match that of at least two other international companies.”

300 thumb scanners have already been ordered for Nadra’s offices across Pakistan.

There are 86 million registered voters in the country and during data collection, Nadra was issuing as many as 15,000 computerized ID cards daily. 

Reported previously in BIometricUpdate.com, Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf directed Nadra to issue computerized national identity cards to the unregistered population and to ensure that no eligible voters were disenfranchised in the country’s recently-passed election.

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