Ethiopia to Make Digital ID Mandatory for Banking Operations

Ethiopia to Make Digital ID Mandatory for Banking Operations

By Chris Burt

Posted on 07/13/2023

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The use of Ethiopia’s national digital ID, Fayda, for all transactions with financial institutions will soon be mandatory.

According to an announcement of the joint initiative by the National Bank of Ethiopia, the country’s central bank, and the National ID Program, the plan is to get all bank customers enrolled for the digital ID in the course of the 2023/2024 financial year in a move that seeks to accelerate government’s financial inclusion ambition. Bank customers will then use Fayda as their bank ID to carry out KYC checks and complete remote onboarding.

Using the Fayda will ease identity verification for bank users in a system, which according to the announcement guarantees data privacy and security. The central bank has also assured that the plan to use the Fayda as primary ID for banking operations will significantly improve transparency, stability and security in Ethiopia’s financial sector.

The approach contrasts somewhat with that of Nigeria, where banks can issue cards for use both as national ID and for financial transactions.

Ethiopia is implementing a World Bank-supported MOSIP-based digital ID project which intends to have all eligible citizens enrolled by 2025. The country also recently contracted IrisGuard to support benefits payments to citizens with iris biometrics.

Chris Burt 

https://www.biometricupdate.com/202307/ethiopia-to-make-digital-id-obligatory-for-banking-operations

United Nations Policy Brief Talks of a Digital ID Linked To Your Bank Account

United Nations Policy Brief Talks of a Digital ID Linked To Your Bank Account

By ReclaimTheNet

Posted on June 19, 2023

The United Nations – or at least some in the United Nations effectively pulling the strings – must feel they are falling behind with pushing controversial ideas like Digital ID compared to the likes of the World Economic Forum (WEF) – even if they’re pushing in the same direction.

And now we have the UN making a case of not only introducing Digital IDs, but also making sure central authorities link them with people’s bank or mobile bank accounts.

This shows up among a flurry of proposals and initiatives described by opponents as “chilling,” included in three policy briefs titled, “A Global Digital Compact, Reforms to the International Financial Architecture, and The Future of Outer Space Governance.”

The purpose of the briefs is to work out what’s known as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ “vision for the future” – “Our Common Agenda” – that should be given the green light in September 2024 during an event dubbed, “The Summit for the Future.”

From the report:

“Digital IDs linked with bank or mobile money accounts can improve the delivery of social protection coverage and serve to better reach eligible beneficiaries. Digital technologies may help to reduce leakage, errors and costs in the design of social protection programmes.”

Not unlike their unofficial counterparts over at the WEF, the UN also speaks about basically regulating global digital future, and uses phrases such as international cooperation and many stakeholders, who will advance principles, objectives and actions, in other words, rules – for – wait for it – “an open, free, secure and human-centered digital future.”

Critics, however, firmly believe, and continue to make their case, that the digital future as envisaged by these groups – official or informal – is going to be quite the opposite of open, free, or human-centric.

As far as the UN’s “vision” for a future global financial system, it is supposed to be harmonized with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and would be governed by something called “the apex body” that is yet to be set up.

The key actors here would be the UN chief, as well as the Group of 20, Economic and Social Council, and “heads of international financial institutions.”

Within this, the UN sees “visions” of “a Global Digital Compact” – sounds innocuous enough, but what it’s supposed to achieve is not. It’s having people, devices, entities, all tied up in a connected network that could apparently be centrally administered.

When those planning this future scheme worry about any negative impact, they never see it as potentially affecting everyone – but only “civil society (…) or selected groups excluded from social benefits.”

ReclaimTheNet

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