Zambia issues general procurement notice for digital ID, trust services project

The SMART Zambia Institute (SMART Zambia) – the government body leading the country’s digital transformation program – has unveiled details about the Digital Zambia Acceleration Project (DZAP), saying specific tender notices for different components of the initiative will be announced in due course.

According to a general procurement notice published last month, SMART Zambia explained that the DZAP consists of four major components, which include building affordable broadband services, interoperable and secure data exchange platforms, enhancing digital skills and capabilities, and program management and capacity building.

SMART Zambia has been piloting MOSIP’s EET (e-Signet) tool for connecting the country’s digital ID to public services with biometric authentication since mid-2024 under the DZAP.

As another part of the DZAP, Zambia intends to develop a digital ID and trust services framework which would establish a secure and reliable platform for the identification of citizens in order to help them get access to public and private sector services.

Recently, some web architects from SMART Zambia received MOSIP-related training, ITWeb reports. The developers got training on integrating the MOSIP platform with Zambia’s SmartCarePro Electronic Health Record System, in a move that will also contribute to enhancing digital KYC services.

The DZAP plan also includes improving the efficiency of government operations though a digital government ecosystem, and promoting regional trade facilitation through the trusted digital ID.

The government says it has received $6 million from the World Bank as project advance which it intends to use to pay for goods, works, non-consulting services and consulting services to be procured under the project.

The total amount of the project is a $100 million grant, with a $20 million add-on in the form of unguaranteed commercial financing.

The general procurement notice mentions that the project intends to hire consultants for various aspects, namely to carry out technical study for expansion of government connectivity and greening digital infrastructure, study on ICT sector policy review for digital government adoption and cross border policy and regulatory harmonization, technical study on existing digital ID elements and to make suggestions for a mobile-based digital authentication and digital signatures solution, capacity building to operationalize the Data Protection Commission, and to develop a Commercial Transaction Manual to inform the procurement modalities.

The notice calls on eligible firms and individuals who would be interested in bidding for the consultancy services to contact the SMART Zambia office.

In October last year, the DZAP Project Preparation Advance was signed, paving the way for the start of discussions by various national stakeholders on the environmental and social management framework. It is not clear when the main project will take off, but the groundworks is already being laid with many major actions taken in the last quarter of 2024.

Last year, experts with the UNDP advised that Zambia must beat a number of challenges on its way as it engages the strategy and design phase of its digital public infrastructure (DPI) implementation. They highlighted the progress already made by Zambia in aspects such as national ID coverage which stands at almost 90 percent.

The DZAP is part of a broader project for the Inclusive Digitalization in Eastern and Southern Africa Multiphase Programmatic Approach (IDEA MPA), an initiative supported by the World Bank with funding to the tune of up to $2.48 billion, according to the Zambia Revenue Authority.

Article Topics

digital ID  |  digital inclusion  |  e-Signet  |  government services  |  MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity Platform)  |  SMART Zambia  |  tender  |  trust framework  |  Zambia