e-government Successes in the Middle East and Africa

The 2015 edition of the Electronic Government and Healthcare ID Cards report, recently released as part of the IHS Digital Security Intelligence Service, states that much of the e-government and healthcare identification (ID) market has previously been focused on large projects in Asia and Europe; however, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region is one of the more interesting markets to develop recently.

The development of e-government projects in the MEA region have had a few false dawns over the last 20 years, with big projects in South Africa, Kenya, Iran and Nigeria all either delayed or cancelled. Now in 2015 there seems to be a genuine chance that we will see significant progress in some of the biggest projects in the region.

Large governmental projects in the MEA region have always been viewed as risky endeavours — prone to delays and cancellations, as funding issues and legal complications arise — but there was some success in the development of electronic ID cards last year in Nigeria and South Africa. Looking forward to 2015, Egypt looks likely to roll out a new electronic ID card, with help from Morpho.

Electronic government projects in the Middle East and Africa was previously led by Morocco, which first issued electronic passports, IDs and driving licences. More recently there has been a rollout of e-government programmes in the Gulf States. There is little activity in sub-Saharan Africa, which is the region with the most to gain from the improved governance that these systems can bring. Of all the sub-Saharan countries, Ghana has had the most success in issuing biometric identity cards.

Now the issuance of electronic IDs in Nigeria, along with bank-led ID pilots that are proceeding in South Africa, finally bring some tangible results to some of the largest countries in the region. Nigeria especially has managed to keep its programme rolling forward, through an exceptionally violent Islamic insurgency that set the backdrop for a difficult presidential election. The incoming president, Muhammadu Buhari, is renowned for his stance against corruption, meaning that as long as the project clears any checks on historical deals, it should receive at least four years of governmental support.

South Africa has also made some progress with its electronic ID cards. The issuing process for new ID cards has sped up, led by the involvement of two large banks, FNB and Standard Bank, which have agreed to issue cards that consumers apply for under the eChannel pilot project. With 300,000 cards issued by June 2014, we can expect further growth in shipments over the next five years. The current timeline proposes that all 38 million ID cards in South Africa be replaced by electronic IDs by 2022.

In North Africa, Egypt has built on the success of its “Family Card” social security project. The Al-Sisi administration has announced a new electronic ID project, developed jointly by Morpho (part of the Safran Group) and Arab Organisation for Industrialisation Electronics (AOI Electronics). AOI Electronics and the Civil State Organisation factory are set to produce the required chips locally, while Morpho will provide additional support. The inclusion of Morpho in this project is likely due to the company’s 2012 secure identity management system and the 2014 rollout of its biometric data collection device, the MorphoTablet. In March 2015 the Minister of Communications and Information Technology announced that MasterCard had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to help connect the current national mobile-money platform with the Egyptian ID card. Because other external programmes rely on the ID card, it is apparent that the Egyptian government assumes that the underlying project will continue.

Compared to the huge markets of the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and Europe, even in 2020 Africa will still be a small segment of the global e-government market; however, if current projects succeed, there will be renewed interest in the entire region. Bigger developments in the region are expected in about five years, as Kenya recently announced another round of e-government projects, Morocco lacks an eHealthcare card in its suite of services, and other West African states may be spurred to action, after seeing the success of Nigerian projects.

Based on current projects, the overall shipments of electronic ID credentials will reach just 53.5 million in 2020. This small but substantial number of credentials could be much larger, if the current projects demonstrate to other governments (and their citizens) that these projects cut graft and allow greater access to services. The hope is that the success of projects like the Egyptian “Family Card,” which led to further developments in the Egyptian e-government suite, can lead to a flurry of announcements of similar projects across the continent.

by the Editorial Staff