Strategies to get the most out of digital identity in focus at ID4Africa 2025

Making digital identity useful is one of the key themes of ID4Africa’s 2025 AGM in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and a series of sessions on Day 2 of the event highlighted different strategies and solutions for doing so. The focus at ID4Africa has shifted significantly from pre-pandemic AGMs, from ID issuance to use cases.

Attendees were asked what the most prominent use case for digital identity is in their country. Financial services came first, at 35 percent, followed by e-government services (29 percent). The third most common answer was “digital identity is not in use yet,” at 16 percent.

Financial services and financial inclusion were, appropriately, examined at some length throughout the day.

PPPs

IN Groupe CEO and former eu-LISA Executive Director Agnes Diallo advocated for public-private partnerships in a keynote address.

Identity schemes are technically difficult to implement, she says, especially in a way that does not result in siloes or vendor lock-in. Keeping mastery of these systems over time and preserving sovereignty while ensuring data security adds further challenges, Diallo says, referring to a massive data leak in Morocco just weeks ago. And then, of course, there are risks of technology bias to guard against.

But a digital identity scheme needs to enable services of some kind, or they are the equivalent of an untravelled road.

“Leveraging the power of both worlds allows us to address and overcome some of those huge challenges,” according to Diallo.

The EU Entry-Exit System is one of the largest and most advanced biometric border systems in the world, and needed particular technologies, robust interoperability, and compliant with a legal framework. Achieving it required aligning the incentives of biometrics and other technology providers with the goals of the overall project.

“One of the reasons I came to lead the company that I’m leading now is because I truly believe that to be able to empower the public sector with these phenomenal solutions, to bring them to life, it’s important that the industry understands what’s on the other side of the table,” Diallo says. And what is on the other side of the table is specific to the given government and project.

When this understanding is realized, she says, the effect is powerful.

In an interview on the sidelines of the event, Diallo tells Biometric Update that something so difficult cannot be done in isolation.

“That’s where the notion of thinking intentionally and thinking smartly about what you want to do and how you want to do it matters,” she emphasizes. Of all the 40 countries where IN Groupe is engaged around the world, she says, there are no pair with identical strategies.

“The first thing is to have clarity on the strategic goal of the government.”

Visa Eastern Africa Cluster Head and Country Manager for Ethiopia Yared Woldesenbet also emphasized the value of PPPs for a successful digital government ecosystem later in the morning.

Build-operate-transfer schemes and partnerships like the one Ghana is running for its ID system present funding alternatives to massive loans, Diallo noted.

But to make the above characteristics reality, the right partner must be chosen. “There is an art, if I may say, in picking well,” Diallo tells Biometric Update.

Standards can help, and Diallo calls out the Secure Identity Alliance (SIA) and its vision for interoperability. The OSIA and SIDI-Hub initiatives, both co-created in Africa, can help ensure interoperability.

Rails before stack

Tech5 Chairman and CTO Rahul Parthe encouraged attendees to think about building “rails before stacks” and decentralized ID.

Bi-lateral trust, an open ecosystem that supports innovation, and a system that is sovereign and agile are part of the “DNA of a leading digital nation,” according to Parthe.

Features like compliance and sustainability cannot be an afterthought. He recounts an anecdote of a country that does not promote its system not because of anything wrong with it, but because a capacity crunch comes with increased users, and there is no funding to scale the infrastructure.

Parthe argued that decentralized digital ID enables incremental investment, rather than large upfront investment. It is easier to scale, spreads risk, and makes use of existing infrastructure instead of requiring huge data centers.

Dr. Hatwib Mugasa, ED of Uganda’s National Information Technology Authority (NITA), also expressed support for decentralization during his talk on UgPass.

“I believe in building rails first, and then stacks,” says Parthe. He explained that foundational rails include the decentralized ID, notifications, data exchange, payments and trust.

International standards

International standards took a prominent place in the presentations and questions from the audience.

SITA Director of Innovation and Industry Andy Smith advocated for the ICAO 9303 passport standard and verifiable credentials (VCs), and Veridos Managing Director and Regional Head of Sales for MEA Xavier Prost referred to the value of a digital travel credentials (DTCs) in his presentation.

Between PPPs and build-operate-transfer schemes, decentralized ID built on rails and global standards, governments across Africa have strategy options to harness the potential of digital identity for financial services, digital public service delivery and any number of other use cases in a way that works for them.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  decentralized ID  |  digital identity  |  ID4Africa  |  ID4Africa 2025  |  public-private partnerships  |  standards