Lebanon working on Super App to accelerate digital govt services

A super app that will enable Lebanese government ministries and agencies integrate their services into a central platform for easy access by citizens is soon to be launched.

The app, currently being built, is part of the country’s efforts to accelerate and simplify access to digital government services, according to reporting by Business News. It also aligns with ongoing work to build a digital ID system which is supported by the World Bank and which falls within the framework of the country’s 2020-2030 Digital Transformation Strategy.

Speaking recently about the Super app, the Minister for the Displaced and Minister of State for Technology and Artificial Intelligence, Kamal Shehadi, explained that once ready, the app will be integrated by all ministries beginning with that of finance which plans to shelve manual stamps for digital ones.

Related to the Super app project is a plan by the government to introduce other components of its digital public infrastructure stack. These include digital ID and digital payments systems, something which the minister believes can be done in one year.

While the official notes that the digital ID can make the use of the Super app easier, the digital payments platform will support different payment transactions and drive financial inclusion.

Give the significance and intended scale of the digital public infrastructure project, the Lebanese government official emphasized the importance of partnerships and other collaborative efforts between the public and private sectors.

“The public sector alone cannot finance the digital transformation venture. Therefore, we must resort to partnerships with the private sector. The biggest chunk of the digital transformation project will be implemented by the private sector,” Business News quotes the minister as saying.

Other projects on Lebanon’s digital transformation agenda discussed by Shehadi include the building of data centers that will be big enough to house digital ID data, as well as the digitization of all records within his ministry to facilitate social protection schemes for displaced persons.

For the data center, the minister said it could take about four years to build, which means that existing data centers owned by private sector entities, can be shared for the time being, assuring that there is no risk with that.

Article Topics

digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital public infrastructure  |  government services  |  Lebanon  |  mobile app  |  super app