Governments grappling with biometrics to ease airport, public service access

Many of the biometrics providers convening in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire for ID4Africa’s 2026 AGM got a first-hand look at how the balance in the global market is tilting. Biometrics registration for the visa on arrival process was smooth, but the lineup was long enough to make flight-wearied travelers wonder if they had even left the EU, where many implementations of the new biometric border control system have been poorly executed. As the top stories of the week on Biometric Update illustrate, the dialogue about digital identity at ID4Africa reflects stronger government understanding of how to build trust than that in the UK.

A negative example

The UK’s tortuous efforts to stand up a national digital ID, or at least a policy for one, could still succeed, in the Home Affairs Select Committee’s assessment. A report says the damage from PM Kier Starmer’s premature and evidence-free initial announcement set the government’s own cause back, and calls the public sector’s capacity to deliver on its promises into question. MPs from Starmer’s own party are calling his leadership into question, so the direction may change before it is clarified. Even once the plan is clarified, skeptics in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales will have to be won over for the prospective digital ID to deliver the intended gains.

A maturing market

Follow-up reporting on ID4Africa’s 2026 AGM kicks off with Executive Chairman Dr. Joseph Atick telling Biometric Update in an exclusive sideline interview at the 2026 AGM that the biometrics and digital identity market in Africa is on the verge of disruption from an emerging class of continental vendors.

The evolving continental market for identity technology is also significantly savvier than a procurement cycle ago, and the conversations at ID4Africa reflect greater market maturity than the fiasco in the UK.

One of three tracks on the final day of last week’s ID4Africa 2026 featured experts from the World Bank and the data protection authorities of Liberia, Benin and Mauritius on how to protect trust in digital identity and other components of DPI. The risks are many, and even the most carefully-crafted laws mean little without enforcement.

Nations across Africa are integrating birth registration and CRVS systems, officials explained in another Friday track. Such integrations can help ease the path to legal identity for refugees and stateless persons, without whom universal inclusion is incomplete, UNHCR and UNICEF reminded attendees.

South Africa’s government services, passport and visa applications and identity verification at banks are all on the verge of digital transformation, Home Affairs says as it requests a budget equivalent to $828 million for the year ahead.

MOSIP has come a long way since identity authorities came together at ID4Africa years ago to demand alternatives to vendor lock-in. A new report from Biometric Update draws on interviews with officials from Morocco, Ethiopia, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka to examine the implementation possibilities. A review of the vendor ecosystem includes profiles of Secugen and Integrated Biometrics.

Arrivals, delayed and accelerated

The European Commission says Greece is breaking the rules of the biometric border control system, EES, with its exemption of British travellers, as concerns about the practicality of the implementation timeline bloom like EU airport line-ups.

Airport biometrics continue to gain traction around the world, however, with the UK lowering the age of eligibility for biometric e-gates, Taipei deploying biometric technology from SITA for a One ID implementation, Japan adding digital travel authorization to its immigration system, which already uses NEC biometrics, and Dubai’s biometric corridor with Paravision technology winning a public sector innovation award.

Deepfakes, BPACS and BIPA

As identity becomes critical infrastructure, and deepfakes strain defenses, a new foundation of trust must be built on transparent evaluations, executives with iProov and Ingenium Biometric Laboratories agreed in a recent webinar. That means looking beyond bold statements and shiny certificates.

Biometric physical access control will be a $9.8 billion industry by 2028, as forecast in the latest Market Report and Buyer’s Guide, and advanced capabilities are gaining traction, as Alan Ganz of RealSense ID and Pratik Shah of Alcatraz AI discussed in an online presentation hosted by Biometric Update.

Blank Rome BIPA Attorney and CIPP/US Dan Saeedi tells the Biometric Update Podcast that the low-hanging fruit of Illinois’ biometric data privacy lawsuits is mostly dealt with. But the filings keep coming, nearly every day he says, and the new ones are potentially more potent.

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Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  week in review