Tanzania contracts American firm for passport extras

March 26, 2019 in Companies, Foreign News, Technology & Telecoms by Editor

March 26—The Tanzanian government has signed another contract with HID Global, an identity products specialist, to add e-Visa and e-Permit capabilities to its e-Passport package, which HID helped deploy last year as part of the Tanzania e-Immigration programme.

Dr Anna Peter Makakala, Tanzania’s Commissioner General of Immigration said on Monday,” This is an important milestone as we continue to work with HID Global to enhance and broaden the capabilities of our e-Immigration ecosystem. We plan to continue expanding this solution to our country’s border crossings and across the broader global community as we become a showcase for efficient, comprehensive and integrated e-Immigration solutions.”

The new web-based visa and residence permit services allow visitors and residents to apply for and receive validated credentials for traveling or living in the country. HID Global is a subsidiary of Swedish giant, Assa Abloy.

Since early 2018, HID Global has been Tanzania’s primary supplier of an end-to-end solution for issuing e-Passports with advanced physical and electronic security features, automated verification capabilities and a tamper-proof contactless chip embedded in a polycarbonate datapage. The country now has a single citizen identification system that spans the entire identity journey from data capture to issuance and can be used to support e-Passports, e-Visas, e-Permits and other physical electronic documents.

Rob Haslam, Vice President of Sales, Citizen ID business with HID Global said,”We are pleased to be entering this second deployment phase with the government of Tanzania, building on the success of the country’s e-Passport roll-out last year. Immigration officers in Tanzania now have a convenient and efficient tool-set for completing their vital mission of vetting and granting electronic visa and residence permit credentials to applicants.”