Nepal cancels ID tender, betting on domestic control

Nepal is facing mounting problems with its national identity system as printing challenges, a purported security issue and a tender cancellation is adding to delays.

The government has scrapped a global tender for the operation, maintenance and technical support of the National Identity Card Management Information System (NIDMIS). The Kathmandu Post reports that the Nepali government has instead chosen to manage the system internally.

The NIDMIS Support and Maintenance tender was cancelled on May 8. The Prime Minister’s office and Council of Ministers will take full control of the system, which is under the umbrella of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the constituent Department of National ID and Civil Registration.

According to an official quoted by The Kathmandu Post, the tender process was cancelled before technical evaluation was completed. The tender was published on December 17, 2025, and three companies applied. These were Gravity Group IND LLC of Dubai, Iris Corporation of Malaysia and IN Smart Identity (formerly Idemia Smart Identity) of France.

The department’s director general Namaraj Ghimire was shifted to the Muslim Commission on May 11. The Ministry of Home Affairs made joint secretary Krishna Poudel the new director general on June 1. According to an official from the prime minister’s office, the decision was made to ensure domestic control of citizen data and that technical experts would be brought in to strengthen Nepal’s digital sovereignty.

Functions including biometric enrollment, data storage and card printing have depended on foreign technology providers. Technical support for the national ID programme was provided by Advantage International Pvt Ltd, a local branch under Idemia, with which the Nepali government signed an agreement in 2018. It covered biometric registration, smart card production, personalization and other technical services.

Following that agreement’s expiry, the now-cancelled international tender was launched.

The administration of prime minister Balendra Shah, who took office on March 27, is looking to centralize digital governance and IT systems. Shah’s government is planning to establish an Information Technology and Electronic Governance Office, which will sit alongside the just created Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation.

However, the country is facing a sharp reduction in card‑printing capacity. One of the two French‑supplied industrial printers has failed and the other is running without proper maintenance. This has cut daily output of national ID cards from 16,000–18,000 to about 3,000. Technicians warn the department lacks the expertise to recover from a major system failure.

The slowdown has increased an already large backlog. Biometric data has been collected from 20 million people, but only 7.8 million cards have been printed. Recent server outages have further disrupted services and dropped public confidence.

Nepal’s digital transformation step sees security setback

Less than 24 hours after a National Identity Card download service was launched, the service became unavailable. The outage followed an investigation by online publication Khoj Samachar, which found alleged security issues with the system.

The download service was intended to let citizens download their National Identity Cards directly to their smartphones without needing to visit government offices. It was seen as a step forward in Nepal’s ongoing digital transformation, allowing citizens to avoid paperwork and visiting physical centers.

The investigation reportedly found the system could expose sensitive personal documents, as anyone only needed to obtain someone’s full name, date of birth and citizenship issuance date to access and download that person’s national ID document. There was reportedly no additional verification layer.

According to Eurasia Review, the Khoj Samachar investigation sparked much online discussion and concern, while it also reported the system was offline (404’d) less than a day after the report was published.

Overall, ID delays are becoming more serious as the national ID is increasingly required for passports, licences, banking, social security and other essential services. While the government argues that local management improves data sovereignty, officials fear the department lacks the skills and resources to operate the system reliably. Successful rollout hinges on how quickly technical capacity can be rebuilt.

Article Topics

digital ID  |  digital sovereignty  |  national ID  |  Nepal  |  tender