Ethiopia’s digital ID proves useful for document authentication, fraud prevention

Ethiopia’s national digital ID, Fayda, has been hailed as a vital tool helping businesses and organizations to easily deal with the challenges of document authentication and fraud prevention.

The implementation of the Fayda, its impact on the delivery of public and private services, difficulties faced by the initiative as well as prospects for the future, were at the centre of a recent public discussion themed “Fayda for Ethiopia,” according to The Ethiopian Herald.

As of February 26, 9.1 million authentications have been completed using the Fayda.

The gathering was organized by the Ethiopian News Agency – a state-owned media company — in partnership with the Ethiopia National ID Program (NIDP). It was attended by representatives from several bodies including the Civil Registration and Residency Service Agency (CRRSA), the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), the Documents Authentication Registration Service (DARS), and the Ministry of Revenue, just to name a few.

During the discussion, it was noted that the Fayda digital ID is proving crucial for several use cases, making life easier for individuals, businesses and organizations. Among other things, the ID is considered as a tool for digital KYC in sectors such as banking.

Apart from the usefulness of the ID in completing document authentication and other fraud prevention processes, the stakeholders recognized the fact that the biometric ID has also come as a lifeline for government and organizations to ease access to services.

Speaking during the workshop, NIDP Executive Director, Yodahe Zemichael, said the importance of the ID cannot be over-emphasized especially as it is increasingly being required for almost all public services in Ethiopia at the moment.

He said the digital ID, which is part of the country’s digital public infrastructure ecosystem, is one of the four major pillars of Ethiopia’s digital economy and has the potential to promote financial inclusion by building an atmosphere of trust between institutions and their customers.

Other speakers highlighted how useful the Fayda ID has proven to be, saying it has not only streamlined the delivery of services, but also cut time and cost in completing ID verification and authentication transactions.

As the NIDP pushes for stronger adoption of the digital ID, so too it is expanding its use cases with school registration being among the latest areas requiring mandatory use of the Fayda.

Implemented through the Ethiopia Digital ID and Services for Inclusion project, the country hopes to issue the Fayda ID to at least 90 million people in the next five years.

Going by the latest figures, a total of 12,215,891 persons have already registered for the Fayda ID, with 52 integrated agencies across several sectors.

Meanwhile, in a recent debate over the fate of document verification, experts crossed views with the arguments suggesting that traditional document verification approaches may be giving way to digital methods which must prioritize a number of factors including layered security.

Article Topics

authentication  |  digital ID  |  document verification  |  Ethiopia  |  Fayda  |  fraud prevention