Ethiopia's National ID Program has extended its partnership with MOSIP (the Modular Open Source Identity Platform) via the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU). The partnership enables the NIDP to perform extensive field tests and a pilot rollout with a goal of 100,000 registrations using the Ethiopian National ID solution.
MOSIP, expressing delight in a statement regarding the extension of the partnership, noted this will "enable the assessment of the Ethiopian ID solution’s potential to improve efficiency, transparency, and targeted delivery of public and social services, by implementing crucial use cases."
Yodahe A. Zemichael, NIDP's Executive Director, said the program is "a digital public good, allowing true technology ownership for National Identification, which is a critical infrastructure element. We hope our partnership with MOSIP will be bi-directional, where NIDP also enriches MOSIP's platform and its global base. We appreciate the close support provided by IIIT-B and the MOSIP team during this time and we look forward to more."
Mr. Yodahe recalled NIDP has been working in partnership with MOSIP for over a year and a half, "customizing it to the Ethiopian context". He expressed appreciation to "the close support" from IIT-B and the MOSIP team.
S. Rajagopalan (Prof.), President of MOSIP, for his part, said his team has been "encouraged by the systematic vision of the NIDP towards establishing digital ID as a fundamental building block for governance. Ethiopia can lead by example for the rest of Africa and the world on how to establish a secure, privacy-preserving, and inter-operable digital ID system. We look forward to continued progress on this critical project and will extend all the support required to see it to fruition.”
The Ethiopian government and the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B) entered a partnership in June 2020 for a pilot implementation of MOSIP, so far registering "impressive results" both in lab and field settings.
MOSIP (the Modular Open Source Identity Platform) is a modular and open source identity platform that helps user organizations such as governments implement a digital, foundational ID in a cost-effective way, while embracing the best practices of scalability, security, and privacy harnessing the power of open source, its website reads.
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Source: MOSIP statement
