Safran Offers More Details on Nepal ID Project

Safran is offering some new details about its work with the government of Nepal on a national identity project.

The collaboration first came to light earlier this summer, when Safran Identity & Security was awarded a $4.9 million contract pertaining to the government’s ID program. Safran has now officially confirmed that it’s actively working with the Nepal National Identity Management Center to develop an electronic National Identity System, which NIDMC Executive Director Dinesh Bhattarai called in a statement “one of the key programs identified in the e-Government Masterplan of Nepal.”

For its part, Safran Identity & Security affirmed in a statement that it has agreed to “deliver an end-to-end system encompassing registration of citizens’ data” and “biometric deduplication” to ensure that each individual gets a unique ID, as well as personalized smart card issuance.

It’s a multi-stage project that is expected to unfurl over the course of five years, and will ultimately see all citizens equipped with their own electronic IDs. Officials in Nepal’s government may have been inspired by India’s Aadhaar program, an ambitious digital ID project with over a billion citizens enrolled, to which Safran has also contributed. In any case, Safran Government Identity Solutions Division EVP Jessica Westerouen van Meeteren says her team “look forward to pursuing and growing this partnership with NIDMC into an unprecedented success.”

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September 1, 2016 – by Alex Perala