Ethiopia is a vast country with hundreds of millions of people living mostly in rural areas. It needs comprehensive registration and identification to bring data, deliver services efficiently, build modern public administration and hasten national development.
According to 2013 to 2018 Strategy and Action Plan “Towards sustainable vital events registration and vital statistics,” Ethiopia’s vital registration has been sporadic, less comprehensive and nonuniversal. “Thus, for several decades, municipalities of big cities and towns had been issuing certificates of births, deaths, marriages and divorces without proper registration anchored in a national law,” the document describes.
In consequence, Ethiopian government issued the Registration of Vital Events and National Identity Card Proclamation in August 2012. National Digital ID Program (NDIP) was then launched in 2021 given special focus as the office, the National ID Program Office organized under the Prime Minister Office.
Currently, the national ID is in a pilot level and striving to be robust, reliable and forward-looking digital identification platform for all citizens. It is giving unique national digital identification numbers to all residents in Ethiopia. The ID will be significant source of data as it provide different circumstance of people like health, profession, By the end of 2025, NIDP proposed to issue Digital IDs to over 70 million citizens across Ethiopia.
As one of the goals of NIDP is ensuring secured financial sector through its “one person is one” principle, the office began working with stakeholders. NIDP this week launched a new initiative “Digital ID for Finance Sector,” along with National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE). The two agreed to work together for security of the financial sector. For NBE, it is taking major steps to modernize the financial sector, maintaining financial stability, fostering financial inclusion and secured financial transaction.
The initiative aims introducing a foundational Digital ID for use by all financial institution. The two initiatives centered on the introduction of new Digital ID and marks a major milestone in the country’s journey towards a digital economy.
According to the joint press statement, the first initiative aims to onboard all financial sector customers to the Digital ID platform in the upcoming fiscal year, 2016 E.C. IT offers a more robust and secure financial ecosystem for all parties. The initiative also helps to benefit the existing customer-base and to increase financial inclusion by removing barriers to entry, the statement revealed.
The statement noted that the process will follow “several legal and technical safeguards, including cyber security and personal data protection principles, enshrined with the existing legal framework. As such, a Digital ID will be able to serve as a primary bank ID and will have legal acceptance in all financial institutions.”
The second initiative, according to the joint statement, involves the use of the Digital ID in the financial sector’s Know- Your-Customer (e-KYC) process. By offering real-time and reliable identity verification system, this new Digital ID platform called “Fayda” would serve as a basis for onboarding new customers and for introducing new digital products and services, while mitigating associated financial risks.
The use of e-KYC processes would significantly reduce barriers to financial access and improve service delivery standards, the statement reiterated. Through the implementation of the Digital ID as a Bank ID initiative, NBE aims to significantly improve the transparency, stability, and security of the financial sector. The initiative will also support the national development plans geared towards establishing a digital economy in Ethiopia.
Modernizing the system and connecting the services with the digitally accepted verifications like the Digital ID would be helpful to minimize the risks in the financial sector. Still, the societal awareness towards the National Digital ID and its accessibility is limited. Starting from recent months, different bank branches are providing Digital ID registration services that are helpful to raise awareness among the society and the service is easily accessible.
BY DARGIE KAHSAY
The Ethiopian Herald July 14/2023
