- Bitok said the pressure to offer faster and more convenient services further makes the conference pertinent to Kenya.
- He said there is a necessity to invest in technology innovations around the ID industry.
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State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok has welcomed the ID4 Africa conference in the country.
He spoke on Tuesday during the official opening of the ID4 Africa conference which took place at the Kenya College of Insurance in Nairobi.
"This conference is particularly timely for the Kenya government. We are currently in the middle of transitioning our national digital identity from the second to the third generation ID," the PS said.
He said the government is committed to supporting the event to meet its shared objectives, and where possible, to embrace useful ideas from the conference.
Bitok said Africa stands to reap immense benefits from more cross-border movements if ID4 Africa is implemented.
He said a credible and friendly identity system will facilitate easier regional and international movement.
"This conference is also happening against the backdrop of the rollout of our envisaged Unique Personal Identifier. The UPI will provide a cradle-to-grave unique number that will obviate the current multiple registrations," Bitok said.
He said there is a necessity to invest in technological innovations around the ID industry
"We must embrace systems that incubate and entrench solution-driven ID systems," he said.
Bitok said the pressure to offer faster and more convenient services further makes the conference pertinent to Kenya.
He said currently the government is working to ensure at least 5,000 government services are available digitally to deliver services easier.
"This forum is a golden reminder of the link between reliable identification regime and social-economic benefits and opportunities," Bitok said.
ID4 Africa was founded in 2014 as a movement that accompanies African nations on their journeys to develop robust and responsible identity ecosystems in the service of development and humanitarian action.
ID4 Africa holds its Augmented General Meeting (AGM) towards the end of the fiscal year in May or June and unites 1300-1500 key stakeholders from the entire identity ecosystem.
The objective of the AGM is to give the Continent a sustainable voice for identity matters.
Through the AGM, African governments jointly explore how digital identity and aligned services can advance socio-economic development in their countries.
ID4 Africa will become even more crucial as African countries move to implement the provisions of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA).