Ethiopia gets $350M World Bank financing for its digital ID project (2024)

tinfoilhatter

Ethiopia is in the process of implementing a nationwide digital ID program called Fayda ID. Fayda ID is an implementation of the open source platform MOSIP [1]. The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation is a strategic partner and funder of the MOSIP technology platform. [2] The digital ID is required by citizens for access to banking, obtaining a drivers license, obtaining SIM cards, and other essential services citizens rely on. [3] The government of Ethiopia is now receiving funding from NGOs such as the World Bank to implement their national digital ID program. [4] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayda_ID [2] https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/articles/mosip-digital... [3] https://id.et/benefits [4] https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/12/13/w...

pinkmuffinere

The comments here seem to have a negative sentiment towards this project, and I want to understand that better. I would prefer not to carry ID at all times, but it seems to me that this is a fact of modern life -- in the US at least, ID is indeed required for banking, to get a drivers license, to board planes, etc. Our ID system is ridiculous. A weird combination of SSN's, Drivers license, and Passport are forced into this role, even though they weren't designed for that, and don't do a great job. If Ethiopia builds a _good_ system, I feel that is better than whatever _bad_ system would naturally arise without planning. Am I totally off base here? What am I missing?

chazburger

Please keep it away from voting please

sparky_z

I remember many years ago (maybe around 2014?) reading about a smallish European country that implemented this sort of thing really well. There was nothing but glowing praise for it at the time. I want to say maybe it was Latvia? Does anyone remember what I'm talking about? I'm wondering if there been any long-term takeaways for how well it ended up working.

dzhiurgis

$2.54 per person. They earn something like $300 per month.

SilverElfin

I do not want a digital ID normalized. It’ll lead to a world where everywhere you go, you need to identify yourself. And those that don’t will be marginalized and locked out of everyday basic services. There is an entire industry pushing this, and I’ve been seeing a phrase “id/acc”. Like to accelerate identification. It’s the opposite of privacy and anonymization. It’s evil.

gib444

What problem is it aiming to solve and how will they measure success...?

dr_dshiv

DigID in the Netherlands is amazing— it works super well and is central to many services. Then it was bought by an American company—oops.