May 20, 2025, 1:08 pm EDT | Chris Burt
Categories Biometrics News | ID for All | Trade Notes
ID4Africa’s 2025 AGM kicked off today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, attended by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali and several of the country’s other top political and legal leaders, with the theme “Digital Identity at Scale: Prioritizing Use, Accelerating Impact.”
The Prime Minister’s Office and the Ethiopian National ID Program (NIDP) are co-hosting this year’s event.
Dr. Joseph Atick, executive chairman of ID4Africa, began his opening remarks by addressing the altered forces that countries across Africa and the world are contending with. The urgent necessity of digital transformation, and the cost of falling behind on it, requires a digital-first mindset, he said. The geopolitical landscape is another challenge.
“Unilateral, self-serving agendas, particularly from the global North, are increasingly fueling tensions” and erecting barriers where bridges are needed. “In this challenging landscape, Africa must draw strength from within,” Atick noted.
The African Union’s digital transformation strategy is one example of how to do so, and ID4Africa fully supports it, and lauds its potential to foster and share African expertise.
Public finances are strained, necessitating consideration of return on investment and alternative financing options, like public-private partnerships.
The countdown to 2030, the target for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, including 16.9 to deliver identity and birth registration to all, is well advanced. Current trends put Africa on track to deliver birth registration to 82 percent by 2063, and less than 60 percent by 2030, so acceleration beyond all current projections is needed to meet the goal.
The disruptive force of AI brings potential for huge GDP gains, but also threatens to widen the digital divide, Atick warned.
And cyber attacks are on the rise, not just by criminal groups and individuals but nation states as well. ID4Africa’s systems suffered a cyber-attack Monday, causing disruptions to its mobile app and other resources. Digital public infrastructure and digital identity systems are likely targets for attack in this new threat environment, Atick revealed.
He called on Africa to build its self-resilience to deal with these difficult circumstances.
Largest yet AGM
The annual growth of ID4Africa’s AGM continues with the 2025 edition.
Approximately 2,300 delegates are in attendance from almost every country in Africa and many more around the world. A thousand of them are government officials from African nations. The ranks of the ID4Africa Ambassadors are up to 126, representing the 48 member states.
The number of African speakers is up by 100 percent compared to 2024, and the number of countries featured in the program is up by 60 percent.
Parallel tracks have been significantly expanded to increase the overall hours of content and number of sessions, as “there is too much happening in Africa to offer a linear format.” The parallel tracks are also needed to include the full range of diverse voices within the community, Atick says.
New and ongoing initiatives
The theme for ID Day 2025, September 16, is “My identity, my umbrella,” and positions identity as something everyone needs on a figurative rainy day.
Atick also explained the new Identity Ecosystem Self Evaluation Framework (IESEF), which was completed by 38 out of 48 member states and informed the changes in 2025’s program.
The massive amount of data collected about the progress each country is making across related areas of the legal and digital identity ecosystem supports a slogan adopted this year by ID4Africa: “From Africa, For Africa, In Africa.”
PM
NIDP Executive Director Yodahe Zemichael and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed overviewed the host country’s ambitions and successes so far with its Fayda digital ID program.
“As digital identity gains global traction, we are reminded that the true measure of success is not in the number of systems built, but in the lives transformed,” PM Abiy Ahmed told attendees during a keynote speech.