ID4Africa 2023 kicks off tomorrow in Nairobi with a focus on digital public infrastructure

The ID4Africa annual conference and expo is set to kick off in Nairobi on Tuesday, May 23, with more than 1850 identity experts and stakeholders attending from 90 countries and a lineup of more than 80 speakers.

The theme of this year’s Augmented General Meeting (AGM) held in the capital of Kenya is “Digital Identity as Public Infrastructure” with three days of physical meetings which will be available over Zoom. Two more days of virtual sessions, known as LiveCasts, will take place on June 7 and June 21.

During the event, ID4Afica will also host an ID technology and solutions expo with over 100 exhibitors. The event stages will welcome speakers from the public and private sectors, including government officials and representatives from companies, industries and organizations.

Didier Trutt, chairman of the non-profit association Secure Identity Alliance (SIA) will present on the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet and development of digital trust frameworks. SIA will also host its mid-year Open Standards Identity API (OSIA) advisory committee with Debora Comparin, chair of the OSIA Initiative at SIA, joining one of the panels.

US company HID Global, which provides identification solutions in Tanzania, Morocco and Angola, will also have speaker present at the event. Colin Howell, HID’s senior security designer, will discuss passport design.

Thales’ Sebastien Guérémy will take to stage to talk about digital public infrastructure in Gabon.

At the exhibition area, the French company also plans to showcase for the first time its fully integrated solution, from registration to Digital Identity verification.

Switzerland-headquartered TECH5 will demonstrate its biometric digital onboarding product, the MOSIP-integrated T5-Digital ID, during a MOSIP Partner event while its co-founder Rahul Parthe will speak about digital ID in African countries.

At the exhibition area, Aratek will present its newest biometric tablet, the 8-inch 442 FAP 60 Marshall 8 Plus designed for ID enrollment and authentication in large-scale digital ID initiatives at a booth at the expo.

Among sponsors of the 2023 ID4Africa annual meeting is Innovatrics which will showcase their voter registration and ABIS police investigation systems. Other sponsors include IN Groupe, HID, Thales, Laxton, TECH5 and Smile Identity.

This year’s event will also see representatives from the Kenyan government, including president William Ruto, as well as officials from ICT and finance ministries, data protection and telco regulators, central banks and social welfare and health agencies.

Civil society members and academics are also expected to join alongside representatives from the World Bank, UNICEF, UNECA and GIZ and philantropic organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Co-Develop, the Tony Blair Institute and OpenID Foundation.

The Nairobi general meeting comes about a year after the 2022 edition which hosted nearly a thousand attendees in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh.

“This remarkable turnout highlights the significant global demand for digital identity,” Joseph Atick, executive chairman of ID4Africa said in a release. “Far too many Africans still lack legal or digital identity which impedes their full participation in society, and this is why the work of ID4Africa and this AGM, are so important.”

The full program of the ID4Africa 2023 is available at its website.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  ID4Africa  |  ID4Africa 2023  |  SDG 16.9  |  UNECA