Guinea to introduce biometric land management with Datasonic

Guinea has entered a profit-sharing agreement with Malaysia’s Datasonic Group Berhad for a range of services including secure document printing, digitization and biometric authentication for land management.

The Memorandum of Agreement would see Datasonic become the prime contractor and Ministry of Urban Planning, Housing and Territorial Development (MUHAT) as project owner in the West African nation.

MUHAT would take a 60 percent cut of profits, Datasonic the remaining 40 percent. It would involve a transfer of skills.

“The entry into the MOA creates an opportunity for the group to further expand the business and promote its products and services in the Republic of Guinea,” said Datasonic in filing with the Malaysian stock exchange.

The focus of the services is on digitized land management which is referred to as “eLandROG” and includes “The implementation of a new computerised citizen data in land matters; The incorporation of biometric authentication of land data; Manufacture, supply and customisation of high security documents for the land title” as well as providing the materials and implementing efficiency processes.

Awaiting further approval and joint feasibility study, the project would last ten years with provision for a five-year extension.

Guinea signed a deal with Innovatrics for Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) for criminal suspect identification in February 2022. This followed the June 2021 announcement that Tech5 was supplying its T5-ABIS for biometric identification with face, fingerprint and iris biometrics as Guinea began implementing its national ID built on MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity Platform).

In 2020, Datasonic was awarded a US$1.7 million contract with the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs to issue cards from the National Registration Department, following another $1.7 million contract from the same ministry for facial recognition e-gates at the Malaysia-Singapore border.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  Datasonic  |  digital government  |  digital ID  |  government purchasing  |  Guinea  |  land registry  |  stocks