Interested bidders are submitting their proposals for the production of core digital ID systems in Rwanda for residents to get electronic identification documents, according to the CEO of Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA), Innocent Bagamba Muhizi.
Muhizi made the disclosure on May 7 during public hearings with Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
In the hearings, officials from the Ministry of ICT and Innovation, and RISA, were responding to public assets mismanagement cases highlighted in the report of the Auditor General for the financial year ended June 30, 2023.
According to information from the Ministry of ICT, Rwanda signed a financing agreement for $40 million for the execution of the digital ID system.
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While reading some of the queries related to the Auditor General’s report, MP Jean Damascene Murara said that the target of the Ministry of ICT was that 60 per cent of Rwandans would have digital IDs in the 2022/2023 financial year, but that was not done.
According to Muhizi, the implementation of the digital ID system component of the project has four phases. The first one about a feasibility study was done before signing an agreement with the World Bank.
The second phase which was about the feasibility study on the status of civil registry records was completed. Muhizi said they were still working on a pre-enrolment system, which is like a staging process, where data is entered and kind of processed to be fit for digital ID format.
For the last phase which will consist of the production of the core ID system, he said, "its procurement process started, tender documents are out, and bidders are submitting their proposals." The actual implementation will start after the tender is awarded to a successful bidder, he noted.
"In the next 18 months, that’s when we will be in actual implementation of the system. We hope it will be completed,” he said.
In April 2023, the Minister of ICT and Innovation, Paula Ingabire, told lawmakers that Rwanda planned to issue digital IDs in three years.
The data required for the digital ID include national identification number; name(s), gender, date of birth, place of birth; nationality; marital status, and spouse name, telephone number, if any; email address, if any; domicile address, and biometrics data including front-facing photograph, full set of fingerprints, and iris scan.
The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of ICT and Innovation, Yves Iradukunda, told lawmakers that the digital identification (ID) is part of a project that the Government of Rwanda has in partnership with the World Bank – a $200 million Rwanda Digital Acceleration Project whose development objective is to increase access to broadband and selected digital public services and strengthen the digital innovation ecosystem. It runs from 2022 through 2026.
The five-year project, he said, is implemented by the Ministry of ICT in partnership with different entities, especially RISA and the National Identification Agency (NIDA).
He pointed out that the digital component of the project had a timeframe of three years.
He acknowledged that the project implementation faced delays given the target that was set.
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Iradukunda indicated that there were some activities that could have been carried out, but the World Bank said that should not be done prior to the amendment of the law governing registration of the population and issuance of the national identity card – to providing for digital identification.
"That's the main challenge that resulted in the delay in the implementation of the project,” he said.
Rwanda enacted a relevant law governing population registration in the national single digital identity system, in June 2023.
He said that the enactment of the law paved the way for the implementation of project activities.
"I can promise you that after the law's enactment, and now that the World Bank approved the disbursement of funds for those activities, now we are making good progress,” he said.
He observed that since the challenges were resolved, "the project is back on track”.