Strings attached to Sri Lanka’s quest for MOSIP integrator revealed

Expressions of interest will be called for a software integrator for MOSIP (Modular Open-Source Identity Platform), an open-source software system that creates and manages Sri Lanka’s digital identity program to forge ahead with implementation, a top digital ministry official tells Biometric Update.

“As the MOSIP grant is from India, the expression of interest will be for an Indian supplier called by the Indian government,” Waruna Dhanapala, Secretary, Ministry of Digitalisation, told Biometric Update on Monday in Colombo. He also said that the technical team from MOSIP was in Sri Lanka recently.

There are 37 system integrators currently listed in the MOSIP Marketplace.

Before August, Sri Lanka plans to call tenders for the MOSIP foundational identification system, which provides unique identifiers for access to public and private services. The system is designed to be customized to meet specific needs, laws, and privacy requirements. MOSIP provides technical technology advisory, platform code, documentation, and capacity building. Dhanapala said that the MOSIP modules focus on collecting, validating, de-duplicating, and storing individuals’ demographic and biometric data to issue foundational IDs and enable authentication based on these unique IDs.

The country has completed a pilot project through MOSIP, which was partnered with the Government of Sri Lanka and the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) in October 2020. The MOSIP grant from India will cover costs associated with the e-NIC.

User and security testing for Sri Lanka’s Electronic National Identity Card (e-NIC) project is now ongoing. As reported last week, the plan is to integrate the Sri Lanka Unique Digital ID project with the e-NIC, assigning unique ID numbers, centralizing various types of IDS, and capturing data like birth certificates and tax identification.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  government purchasing  |  India  |  MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity Platform)  |  SL-UDI  |  Sri Lanka  |  tender