GenKey takes over biometric passport, national ID card production in Comoros

East African archipelago nation Comoros has selected GenKey to produce its biometric passports and national ID cards. GenKey replaces Semlex, which had held the contract since 2007.

Minister of the Interior Mohamed Ahamed Assoumani told local media outlet Al-watwan that under the contract with Semlex, the biometric data collected from all Comorians for passport issuance had been stored in Belgium. Under the agreement with GenKey, all data will be stored domestically.

Semlex had been producing passports and biometric IDs under a build-operate-transfer contract

The only security printer for the biometric ID documents is located in Moroni, where all Comorian passports and IDs have been produced under the previous deal. This arrangement led to challenges, costs and delays for people living in the nation’s other islands. GenKey has agreed to supply equipment for Comoros’ passports and ID cards to be produced on its other two main islands as well.

With the change in providers underway, Comoros has suspended passport and ID card issuance until March 26.

The report notes that GenKey has previously signed contracts with Rwanda, Tanzania, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire, in the latter case in partnership with Semlex.

Comoros received a 9.51 million euro (US$10.4 million at the time) grant in 2024 from the African Development Bank to support the build-up of its digital public infrastructure (DPI), including data centers, digital public services, and a digital public payments system.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometric data  |  biometric passport  |  Comoros  |  data collection  |  digital ID  |  GenKey  |  identity document  |  national ID  |  procurement  |  Semlex