NADRA welcomes World Bank to discuss digital identity, economy

With a robust national digital ID system acting as the main building block for the country’s digital transformation efforts, Pakistan is undertaking a number of activities to further its march down the path of digital public infrastructure development.

The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), which is one of the government agencies leading the digital transformation drive, last month undertook a number of actions aimed at getting that digital transformation journey a step ahead.

These activities include the launch of a civil registration inception plan, the signing of an MoU for effective data use, another for a digital payments gateway, discussions with a visiting World Bank delegation on a digital economy enhancement project, as well as talks on digital transformation collaboration opportunities with a Ugandan government team.

Inception Plan to make civil registration easier

The plan which has the approval of the Ministry of Interior was launched early last month with the aim of streamlining the registration of births, marriages and deaths by facilitating CRVS data integration between the provincial and federal systems.

According to NADRA, the plan which principally involves digitizing the CRVS system, will be implemented in a three-phased format over a period of two years.

In the first phase, Punjab’s Health Information System Delivery Unit (HISDU) and Federal Department of Immunization (FDI) will be integrated with NADRA, facilitating birth registration across 10 health facilities.

Phases II and III aim to expand these services, respectively, to 25 and 90 percent of health facilities in the country.

Data use, digital payments agreements

NADRA also recently signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) within the framework of advancing Pakistan’s digital transformation ambitions: one on the effective use of data, and the other on a digital payments gateway to ease digital payments in the country and strengthen the national DPI ecosystem. A digital payment facility, note, is one of the three components of DPI.

The MoU on data use was signed between NADRA Technologies Limited and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics during the Data Fest 2024.

During the Fest, NADRA showcased its digital ID enrollment capabilities especially in remote areas as well as its digital government prowess both at home and abroad.

The ID authority also unveiled Rugged Enrollment Kits which it plans to put into use in the near future.

With regard to the digital payments deal, the agreement was reached with the Bank of Punjab (BoP), and also includes an Acquiring Agreement.

NADRA Chairman, Gen Munir Afsar, and President and CEO of BoP, Zafar Masood, both noted the significance of the partnership in creating an atmosphere for secure, convenient and innovative digital financial transactions.

World Bank checks ID progress, Uganda seeks collaboration

Last week, NADRA officials welcomed a World Bank delegation which came to get information about Pakistan’s digital transformation advancements, especially in the domains of identity and the digital economy.

The team, lead by Vyjayanti T. Desai, practice manager for Digital Development for South Asia, was briefed on issues regarding the Pakistan Digital Economy Enhancement Project (DEEP), as well as the country’s overall progress on its DPI implementation.

Meanwhile, a government delegation from Uganda was also in Pakistan late last month to discuss with NADRA officials on ways of tracing paths to effective collaboration.

Conscious that experience-sharing and collaboration is a key factor for success in building DPI, the Ugandan team, headed by the Secretary the Cabinet, Lucy Nakyobe Mbonye, came around to share in NADRA’s vast digital ID experience. The receiving officials explained NADRA’s work and some of its latest innovative solutions.

Uganda is preparing to launch a national wide biometric enrollment for a new generation ID card. The country’s ID authority is expected to receive over 5,000 enrollment kits for that purpose.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  civil registration  |  digital economy  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  digital public infrastructure  |  NADRA  |  national ID  |  Pakistan  |  World Bank