Papua New Guinea unveils digital ID, multipurpose wallet built by Tech5

A digital ID system (SevisPass) and multifunctional identity wallet (SevisWallet), made by Tech5, have been officially launched by the government of Papua New Guinea (PNG).

These are part of the country’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) ecosystem which has been under construction for the past years.

The technology partner announced that the ecosystem was unveiled by PNG’s Prime Minister Hon James Marape during the recent Digital Transformation Summit 2025.

It is a decentralized DPI ecosystem built on Tech5’s trust platform T5-OmniTrust, as well as the T5-Airsnap and T5-OmniMatch ABIS, the partner said. It also includes its T5-Cryptograph decentralized digital ID technology which allows for secure storage of a digital ID.

The SevisPass digital ID and wallet were piloted towards the end of last year.

“SevisPass gives every eligible person in Papua New Guinea a secure digital identity that can be verified instantly. This will help us strengthen trust, improve safety, reduce fraud, and make access to government services faster and more transparent,” Steven Matainaho, chairman of the Public Service ICT Steering Committee at the country’s Department of Information & Communications Technology (DICT), is quoted as saying.

“Security, privacy, and citizen trust are central to this initiative. SevisPass adheres to international standards and is architected using modern digital identity frameworks to ensure longevity and scalability as PNG’s digital ecosystem expands. Today’s launch is a major step forward for our national Digital Public Infrastructure.”

Chief Strategy Officer at Tech5, Rob Haslam, said the project seals their leadership position in the DPI arena.

“With this project, we are cementing our leadership of the Digital Public Infrastructure space where we bring together our entire portfolio of technologies to create trust frameworks where citizens, governments and private enterprises alike can extract and create value from trustable digital ID,” Haslam remarked.

He added: “This project is now one of three national-level implementations where Tech5’s technology is bringing digital ID into the 21st century. We are proud to be part of this transformational initiative in PNG and trust shown by the DICT in our capabilities to deliver.”

The launch of the SevisPass and SevisWallet come after the PNG government had approved the country’s National Digital Identity Policy 2025 which Cabinet approved last year. It is the legal framework that will guide the functioning of the SevisPass.

According to the government, the DPI ecosystem is a lever of the country’s digital transformation, with the digital ID designed to facilitate identity verification and authentication for access to a diverse mix of digital services. The SevisPass is conceived to have three tiers with different assurance levels.

Tech5 is a specialist in digital wallet projects. The firm collaborated with Visa to build Ethiopia’s FaydaPass wallet.

Both partners have also been drafted in to lead a national digital wallet project in Djibouti.

Article Topics

ABIS  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital public infrastructure  |  digital wallets  |  government services  |  Papua New Guinea  |  SevisPass  |  SevisWallet  |  TECH5