Ethiopia links digital ID with passport system in utility-first adoption push

Ethiopia’s Immigration and Citizenship Service (ICS) has announced the integration of the Fayda national digital ID with the passport application system in a bid to streamline the process and strengthen its integrity.

For the ICS, the integration is part of the Ethiopian government’s utility-first strategy to drive adoption of the ID by linking it up with a growing number of public and private sector services.

The linkage means that passport applications will henceforth be processed based on biometric data held by the National Identity Authority (NIDP), according to the ICS Director General Selamawit Dawit. The move will also go a long way in solving the problem of passport issuance delays, which has been a major pain point for citizens.

Speaking recently while announcing the development, as Birrmetrics reports, the official emphasized that the application process for biometric passports was going fully online as part of government’s plan to simplify the process and curb the need for in-person visits to passport offices.

Ethiopia has successfully set up a foundational digital ID system, alongside which it is building other digital public infrastructure (DPI). The country says the Fayda ID is a major pillar of its 2030 digital government strategy, which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed lunched last December.

More than 46 million people have already been enrolled for the Fayda and 132 entities integrated with it, as the NIDP pursues a plan to reach the 60 million enrollment mark by the end of this year. NIDP plans a super-agent procurement deal to drive enrollment in difficult-to-reach parts of the country s part of that goal. Over 13 million digital ID cards have so far been printed.

Ethiopia is also building a digital government ecosystem, notably through the MASOB initiative, by integrating the Fayda with several services across government ministries, agencies, departments as well as entities in the private sector.

Apart from delivering the Fayda to drive social inclusion especially for refugees, the digital ID has also been integrated with the education system, the public service, public procurements, passenger verification for domestic flights, and the processing of transport ministry documents, just to mention a few use cases.

The objective, the government says, is to facilitate how citizens get access to several public and private sector services.

Like Ethiopia, several other countries are reckoning the fact that building digital ID systems is not enough, but integrating them with other systems to facilitate daily transactions for citizens is what matters more.

Article Topics

digital government  |  digital ID  |  Ethiopia  |  Ethiopia National ID Program (NIDP)  |  Fayda