Burundi looks to India Stack for digital ID and payments infrastructure

Burundi wants to leverage one of the world’s most successful Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) models to fast-track its national identity and payment systems.

Discussions to negotiate this partnership took place recently between Isidora Ntakiyiruta, aide to Burundi’s Minister of Finance, Budget and Digital Economy, and the Indian Ambassador to Burundi, Upender Singh Rawat, the ministry said in a statement posted on X.

Both parties explored ways through which the India experience can help Burundi modernize its payments infrastructure, using the Universal Payments Interface (UPI) system to drive financial inclusion for millions of Burundians. Further technical contacts are expected to be made between the relevant institutions of both countries to chart a clearer path towards formalizing the digital cooperation. Last year, Burundian authorities also had discussions with the IFC, an affiliate of the World Bank, for digital transformation support.

India’s DPI, known under the India Stack banner, is increasing becoming a model for many countries around the world, with cooperation agreements already signed with at least 23 nations.

This is largely due to the success of its Aadhaar biometric ID which is the world’s biggest digital ID program with more than 1.3 billion enrollments, as well as UPI which has already gone live in eight nations and still attracting interest. The country is also aiming for greater digital sovereignty and strategic autonomy. An analysis of the India Stack by the country’s Ambassador to France, Debnath Shaw, underlines its global nature, noting that the vision is not limited to one country but can be applied to any nation, developed or one that is developing or emerging.

The export of India’s DPI architecture is considered a global public good as small and mid-sized economies alike are now bypassing the trial-and-error phase of DPI by adopting these pre-tested and open-source blueprints to accelerate their own digital transformation. Other countries such as Morocco, Philippines, and Sri Lanka, are also looking at the model which aligns with the World Bank’s Identification for Development (ID4D) and the G2Px initiatives that advocate such integrated approaches to DPI.

For Burundi, eventually concretizing the partnership will offer a faster, cheaper, and more secure path to digitizing its economy, reduce reliance on proprietary foreign vendors and foster local innovation. With India Stack’s layered approach, the East African nations hopes it can build flexible infrastructure that can evolve with technology. Linking digital identity directly to instant payment rails, the country can dramatically reduce the cost of financial transactions and expand inclusion for its unbanked population.

Farmers, for example, can receive subsidies directly into verified accounts, small businesses can access credit through shared data, and citizens can access government services without bureaucratic redundancy.

The move also underscores the importance of South-South cooperation and collaboration in building DPI, something which India itself championed during its presidency of the G20 in 2023.

Burundi had planned to get a fully functional biometric ID system by 2025, but the projection didn’t materialize.

Article Topics

Burundi  |  digital ID infrastructure  |  digital payments  |  digital public infrastructure  |  India Stack