School registration adds up to expanding use cases of Ethiopia’s digital ID

Reasons for which people require the Fayda digital ID in Ethiopia are increasing by the day. Since its launch in 2022, the use cases keep growing as the government fixes its digital transformation drive and digital government strategy on the digital ID which is expected to be linked to almost all public services.

This month, Ethiopian authorities said the digital ID will be a requirement for registration in schools as from the next academic year, Shega reports.

This will happen through a collaboration between the Addis Ababa Civil Registration & Resident Services Agency and schools, according to the agency’s Director General, Yonas Alemayehu.

Until now, registration in schools has been done essentially by presenting a child’s birth certificate, but the new plan, premised on a government ordinance, allows for children above the age of five to be enrolled and issued a biometric digital ID.

Alemayehu says the move is part of a wider plan by the agency to digitize all services, a project already in a pilot phase. He said as part of the process, 21 of the 116 administrative divisions (Woredas) have already been digitized.

This step also goes in the way of an existing collaboration which the civil registration agency has with the Ethiopia National ID program (NIDP) to advance ID issuance.

In line with the objective, the agency organised a special civil registration drive last October for the Fayda digital ID. It helped issued over 260,000 residence IDs in the past six months representing a drop of about 26 percent within the same period the year prior, officials say.

NIDP Executive Director, Yodahe Zemichael, is quoted as explaining the importance of the ID in the school milieu.

Relatedly, shareholders of a program under the office of the Prime Minister have been told that they must use the Fayda in order to complete a compulsory re-registration of their shares digitally.

The Reporter cites a letter sent to the Capital Market Authority and the National Bank of Ethiopia by NIDP boss emphasizing the use of a digital ID for re-registration of shares.

A growing list of use cases for Fayda

Since it was launched, the Ethiopian government has been integrating the Fayda with several public and private sector services. While it is used as an inclusion tool for refugees, asylum seekers and returnees to access services, it has been made mandatory for public servants, the tax system, government procurements, facilitation of domestic flights with Ethiopian airlines as well as and banking transactions.

Late last year, NIDP entered into an agreement with four government agencies to simplify access to integrated services within the scope of the Digital Ethiopia 2025. These public institutions included the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute, the Information Network Security Administration, the Addis Ababa Civil Registration and Residency Service Agency, and the Addis Ababa Innovation and Technology Development Bureau.

At the start of 2024, Ethiopian authorities warned that a time will come when anyone seeking any public service in the country will have to present their Fayda ID.

What’s Fayda digital ID?

As explained by NIDP, the Fayda is a foundational 12-digit national digital ID which contains the biographic and biometric data of citizens embedded in a chip. Built on MOSIP, the identification has been designed to streamline access to essential public and private sector services and improve the efficiency of public administration.

The ID, which has now been obtained by 11.4 million people, is intended to complement the Kebele ID system by introducing a more secure, centralized, and inclusive solution, working alongside existing systems to enhance digital efficiency and ensure a more reliable and secure nationwide identification process. The Kebele ID is a local ID document which before now served as the only official proof of identity.

The country says it plans to issue the Fayda ID to at least 90 million people by 2030, with support from its key funding and technology partners.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometric enrollment  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  Ethiopia  |  Ethiopia National ID Program (NIDP)  |  Fayda  |  national ID