Record ID4Africa exhibitors show growth in continent’s digital identity market

Among the new all-time highs in scale set at ID4Africa’s 2025 AGM in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is the number of booths in the exhibition, which rose to 109 this year.

The sheer numbers required the exhibition area to be split between three areas; one between the main presentation rooms, one next to the lunch area, and the main room, where refreshments were served each morning and afternoon. All three have been packed at various times throughout the event, with the first seeing the most consistent traffic.

Most are vendors of biometrics, digital identity tools and credentialing technologies, such as for secure ID documents. But not all. In addition to non-profits like OpenCRVS and MOSIP, national ID bodies from the host country’s NIDP to Pakistan’s NADRA are also present.

Africa is represented amongst the exhibitors by Smile ID, Margins Group and Seamfix.

“Platinum Patron” Toppan Security and “Gold Patrons” Veridos and SITA have prominent places in the area nearest the presentations.

Tech5 took an active role during the conference, in no small part due to its involvement in host Ethiopia’s digital ID system, and the launch of the FaydaPass digital wallet during the event.

The talk at the Integrated Biometrics booth is largely centered on its Infant ID technology, which IB holds the license for outside of Brazil. IB VP of Sales for EMEA for Infant ID, Eleanor Benson, invoked ID4Africa ED Dr. Joseph Atick’s phrase in stressing the importance of “immutable evidence of origin.”

Mantra Smart Identity Reginal Sales Manager Nelson Kinoti told Biometric Update that the trend of biometric registration kits becoming ever-smaller is headed towards their replacement with robust, enterprise-grade tablets.

Regula is back for its tenth consecutive year at ID4Africa, and Business Development Manager for Africa Vitalijs Voitkevics told Biometric Update that the event remains one of its most important on the calendar each year.

IN Groupe’s booth is immediately beside Idemia Smart Identity’s as the two negotiate the former’s acquisition of the later.

ID4Africa veterans BioRugged, Iris ID, Innovatrics, Neurotechnology, Entrust and Xperix are demonstrating their latest technologies to African government officials throughout the three days of the exhibition.

On top of those with booths, other vendors, such as FaceTec and Thales, are also on the scene in Addis participating in ID4Africa.

As the exhibitors began packing up at the end of day 3, all of those Biometric Update spoke to expressed an intention to return for ID4Africa 2026 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  ID4Africa  |  ID4Africa 2025