Togo launches tender for national biometric identification scheme

The National Agency for Identification of Togo (ANID) has launched an international call to tender for the design, supply, installation and maintenance of an information system within the framework of the country’s biometric civil identity card project.

Details of the tender, which had been explained in a webinar on April 2, were published early this month by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Digital Transformation.

Togo is carrying on with this project to put in place a Biometric Unique Identification system thanks to funding it has received from the World Bank as part of the West Africa Unique Identification for Regional Integration and Inclusion Project, dubbed WURI –Togo. WURI is digital ID project seeking to enhance regional integration with ECOWAS – the West African regional bloc of 15 member-countries.

The tender, which runs until July 28, 2021, is seeking closed offers from eligible bidders who meet the conditions required to provide the development and implementation of Togo’s biometric digital ID technology solution and the issuance of the said ID documents to citizens, the tender notice states.

It adds that the project, which is planned to run over a period of five years, will ensure that the technology solution that will be provided should be done with an initial set of functionalities within the first three months, before other modules are added within the following three months.

The notice further specifies that system the government is looking to have will be such that it can be integrated into other national systems so as to provide diverse services to Togolese citizens.

The tenderers say improvements will be made to the system throughout the contract period by whoever wins the bid, and this will include the addition of new modules and increased security and integration with other systems. The start date for the maintenance component of the project will be unveiled in due time, they disclosed.

More information on the tender can be obtained from ANID Director General and tender files can be summited either physically or via email because of COVID-related exigencies, the notice mentions, adding that tenders must be accompanied by a guarantee amount of 300 million West African CFA francs (about US$557,000).

The launch of tender details for this project follows a sensitization campaign which the government had undertaken to popularize the biometric digital ID project.

Plans for the rollout of biometric ID in Togo were unveiled last year by the country’s Digital Economy and Digital Transformation Minister, Cina Lawson.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  identity document  |  identity management  |  national ID  |  tender  |  Togo