Photograph — National Academies

Being able to verify people’s identities is critical for a nation’s growth and prosperity and yet nearly half of all African citizens can’t prove who they are to vote, travel freely and receive government benefits and services. HID Global®, a worldwide leader in trusted identity solutions, is launching an initiative to help close this identity gap and will be sharing details at the ID4Africa Movement (ID4Africa 2019). The three-day conference will be hosted from 18-20 June 2019 in Johannesburg by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) of the Republic of South Africa.

HID Global brings to its initiative a broad solution portfolio, close working partnerships with leading integrators serving African governments, and strategic investments in its business operations dedicated to building a better future for citizens. The initiative builds on HID’s proven track record of enabling effortless and worry-free identity verification for the citizens of African nations, with a steady cadence of ongoing deployments across the continent.

“HID Global addresses each step of the citizen identity journey and everything government agencies in Africa and other emerging markets need to deploy complete solutions for issuing driver’s licenses, social security cards, passports and other national ID documents,” said Jessica Westerouen van Meeteren, VP & Managing Director, Citizen ID business with HID Global.

“Our initiative tackles the challenges of serving citizens living in remote, unconnected areas who are at the greatest risk of marginalization and exclusion, and aligns well with the ID4Africa organization’s ‘ID-4-All’ movement aimed at facilitating economic development and the success of humanitarian aid, government services, and other critical programs.”

HID Global will be at ID4Africa 2019 demonstrating its extensive product family that powers the trusted identities of a government’s people, places and things. In addition to the annual conference, HID Global will be hosting an exclusive media round table on Wednesday, 19 June 2019, offering media the opportunity to engage with the company’s spokespersons, ID4Africa’s Ambassadors and other external stakeholders.

Each of HID’s solutions helps to solve the technological, infrastructure and other deployment challenges that prevent citizens from having the official identification they need to access government services and programs. Each of the following solutions helps solve the technological, infrastructure and other deployment challenges that prevent citizens from having the official identification they need to access government services and programs:

  • HID goID™ platform for mobile IDs: Paves the way for convenient and secure mobile access to government programs and services. Tanzania is using the platform to provision e-permit and e-immigration credentials over the air to citizens’ smartphones, ensuring they can be assigned or revoked in real time and verified anywhere by an official with a smartphone.
  • HID Mobile Biometric Solutions: Enables disenfranchised citizens to be enrolled in government identity programs regardless of their location. The solutions bring empowerment, freedom and connectivity to those who need it most while creating new capabilities including “passport-free” border crossings and fraud-resistant pension programs.
  • HID Secure Issuance Solutions: Have been chosen by multiple African governments for existing and planned national ID, resident ID, driver’s license, voter ID and refugee identification programs. HID FARGO Connect moves issuance to the cloud so governments can serve citizens anywhere, and the HID FARGO printer family was recently expanded to include the world’s fastest retransfer printer for high-volume card personalization.
  • HID Global e-Passport: Provides the fastest path to launching an end-to-end citizen ID program, from data capture through personalization and issuance. It is at the heart of Tanzania’s award-winning program that has made travel easier and more secure for citizens.
  • HID Access Control Solution: Ensures that only authorized people can enter government facilities using a smart card or a mobile ID carried on a smartphone. The latest fingerprint reader speeds employees through checkpoints with increased security and convenience.

Of an estimated 1.1 billion people worldwide that cannot officially prove their identity, it is believed that approximately 500 million live in sub-Saharan Africa. Problems are worsened in war-torn African nations where each conflict adds to the millions of displaced people who flee without the necessary identification documents to receive basic legal, social and economic rights and opportunities. National identification programs solve these problems while bringing a sense of inclusion, engagement and pride in regional and national communities.

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