TECH5 and Sycamore to provide DRC students with digital IDs nationwide

TECH5 and its Kinshasa-based partner Sycamore are gearing up to launch their digital student ID solution across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), they said in a press release. This comes after a successful initial deployment in the country’s capital city in late-2022.

According to the plan, all Congolese students will possess advanced student ID cards with biometrically verifiable credentials. These innovative cards will grant access to many campus facilities and serve as transportation cards for boarding student buses.

By encrypting face biometric data in the T5-Cryptograph, the multi-functional identity verification will be conducted online and offline using a mobile device. Aimed at bolstering safety on campus and during transport, the solution utilises TECH5’s T5-OmniMatch DIT (Digital Identity Toolkit) technology to encrypt facial biometric data.

The companies are considering expanding their collaborative efforts beyond student ID, aiming to apply digital ID technologies in various sectors and to the rest of civil society. In the project’s first year, Sycamore aims to issue one million student IDs, with plans to expand the operation and distribute five million IDs each year thereafter.

This development fits in with the DRC’s Plan National du Numérique “Horizon 2025”, which seeks to advance widespread biometric ID verification and the implementation of citizens’ IDs in their SIM cards, among other objectives.