Tiko Africa seeks partner for voice biometrics collection project in Kenya

Tiko Africa, an organization that offers sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services to young people and adolescent girls in five African countries, is shopping for a partner to help collect voice biometrics from its users in Kenya for the enhancement of its digital identification platform.

According to a tender announcement, the purpose of the project is to boost the organization’s one-to-many (1:N) capabilities of the voice biometrics feature on its digital platform called Tiko.

Through direct offices or local partners, Tiko Africa has operations in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa, with about one million active users.

As explained in the announcement, voice biometrics will be collected from Tiko clinics and pharmacies as well as households in Kenya, with the data expected to serve three key purposes. These are to enable the identification of users through their voice biometrics using a Tiko card or their phone number, ensure identification of the same user who comes back many times for the same services or products, as well as activate a fraud prevention system by making it impossible for users to access other accounts even if they present a Tiko card linked to such accounts.

The project is starting on a pilot that will see the training of the voices collected on the Tiko platform to improve their identifiability.

The deadline for submission of bids is March 4, 2024.

The project owners say the suitable provider of the service should be located in Kenya and one that has the required software, tools and other technical capabilities to offer an end-to-end service.

The tender announcement also outlines other technical requirements to be considered by bidders, deliverables, evaluation criteria, experience, skills and abilities, technical approach and execution plan, and how interested firms or individuals can apply.

The use of voice biometrics is growing in popularity although it faces threats of deepfakes with the growing nature of generative AI.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  Kenya  |  patient identification  |  tender  |  voice biometrics