Company News

Togo Appoints Atos and IDEMIA

The Togolese Agency for Identification, ANID-TOGO, has partnered with Atos and IDEMIA to build a national biometric eID system based on the Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP). This project is part of the West African UID Regional Integration Program ‘WURI’ with a global budget of $500 million funded by the World Bank.

Atos and IDEMIA will design, build, test, and run a biometric national eID solution for Togo based on iris, face, and fingerprint recognition technologies.

The solution will include a citizen portal, mobile app, cybersecurity, core biometric system, enrolment kits and personalisation system for the new eID cards. The end-to-end integrated turnkey solution will be built on a robust and scalable infrastructure that can suit current and future needs from the Togo government. The project will include a focus on local delivery and competence transfer, with Atos establishing a subsidiary in Togo to ensure the transfer of knowledge and skills to local staff for long-term sustainability.

IDEMIA Middle-East Africa SVP, Mazen Hamadallah, said: ‘We are thrilled to partner with Atos to deliver a biometric eID solution for Togo. IDEMIA’s long-standing expertise is helping bring about the substantial digital ID changes currently underway.’ 

‘Having successfully implemented over 200 online and offline systems across the world, we are committed to leveraging our biometric technology and expertise to accompany governments and institutions deliver on their objectives. With this project, we look forward to supporting Togo’s digital transformation and improving the lives of its citizens’.

IN Groupe Acquires a Stake in Archipels

IN Groupe has taken a shareholding in Archipels, developer of a blockchain-based platform for certification and decentralised verification of documents and identity attributes.

Founded in 2020, Archipels has developed a blockchain-based platform ‘French sovereign permission’ and offers certification and decentralised verification of documents and identity attributes. According to a press release, 70 million documents have already been verified through its solution, which has 24 blockchain nodes on French soil. The consortium’s objective is to support organisations in the certification and verification of their documents and data to combat fraud and identity theft.

IN Groupe was already a technology partner of Archipels. Caisse des Dépôts and La Poste also participated in this new round of financing.

The new funds will be used to accelerate Archipels’ growth with plans to make it the leading solution for decentralised digital identity and data verification. More specifically, the consortium plans to strengthen its presence in Europe and Africa, doubling its workforce by the end of the year.

‘Our entry into share ownership of Archipels is in line with the execution of IN Groupe’s Odyssée Digitale 2025 strategy around tomorrow’s digital identities and services, in both physical and digital environments’, declared Didier Trutt, Chairman of IN Groupe.

‘This investment represents a key step in the development and deployment of decentralised identity solutions capable of guaranteeing sovereignty for states and data security for users.’

IDnow Joins ICAO Public Key Directory Pilot

IDnow has announced its participation in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Public Key Directory (PKD) pilot programme. The identity proofing platform will join the programme to further enhance its document checking capabilities in commercial air travel.

The ICAO PKD ensures that information adheres to the technical standards required to achieve and maintain interoperability, but it also needs to make sure information can be exchanged reliably, in a timely manner and on an open-ended, indefinite basis.

The central repository for exchanging the information required to authenticate electronic Machine-Readable Travel Documents (eMRTDs), such as ePassports and electronic ID (eID) cards, needs to be secure.

‘Security and facilitation are a top priority in air travel, and identity verification plays a crucial role in any travel security equation nowadays,’ said Lovro Persen, Director of Document and Fraud at IDnow.

IDnow has received temporary permission to read out the data stored in the near-field communication chip of ePassports and eID cards and to use this data in their commercial solutions in the air travel domain.

Lovro added: ‘being part of this program allows us to verify the authenticity of an electronic ID document and its rightful origin.

‘In addition to our advanced in-house fraud fighting measures, we are thus able to verify that the data on the document’s chip is authentic and that the issuing authority is the one it claims to be.

‘We can extract the embedded portrait photo of the document holder from the NFC chip and use it for biometric verification, knowing that it has not been tampered with’.

Mvine Partners With TrustID

Digital identity service provider Mvine has partnered with TrustID, experts in digital identity validation technology, to deliver a new range of digital identity services suitable for everyone, no matter their documentation.

The move supports the commercial strategy of both Mvine and TrustID to scale up their respective go-to-market activities, starting with the UK business-to-business (B2B) sector.

Through this new partnership, Mvine will integrate its digital identity hub to TrustID’s identity validation technology. TrustID is a UK government certified Identity Service Provider (IDSP). The result will be a solution designed to deliver a range of inclusive digital identity validation services for people with all types of documentation.

The partnership coincides with the launch to the UK B2B market of ‘MvineID’, a new service delivering fast and affordable identity verification checks to UK businesses according to their needs and budget.

When Mvine’s business customers require Right to Work (RtW), Right to Rent (RtR) and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, they can opt to select TrustID as their identity service provider (IDSP). Digital identity validation (IDV) checks performed using technologies by TrustID will then be passed through Mvine’s identity hub, which delivers a non-repudiable and tamper-proof certificate of verification.

Professionals such as human resource managers, volunteer managers, estate agents and landlords will be able to purchase the type of IDV checks they require in the quantities they require without the need to first integrate their own systems to the IDSP.

This service offers choice to employers and landlords when, for example, recruiting new permanent, contract or volunteer staff, or when new residential tenants are onboarded by landlords or their managing agents.