Government Representatives from 15 countries in Africa and Asia Pacific have now joined the OSIA Advisory Committee
On 1st and 2nd December 2020, the Secure Identity Alliance (SIA) hosted its third OSIA Advisory Committee bi-annual meeting (held virtually) gathering its growing community of 35+ members of government organizations and ID industry working together to unlock the identity market by developing a universal interoperability framework for innovation, competition and sustainability.
In the presence of these government representatives, the 20 private and public companies that have joined the OSIA initiative were able to demonstrate during the virtual meeting the live simultaneous collection of sensitive ID data from multiple enrolment stations spread around the globe to the creation of physical ID card and its digital companion (mobile wallets).
A digital public good, OSIA is a set of Open Standards APIs (interfaces) available on GitHub.
Speaking at the annual OSIA Advisory Committee meeting, Engr. Aliyu Abubakar Aziz, Director General/CEO, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and Chair of the OSIA Advisory Committee said “An effective and inclusive national identity program is important all the time, but never more so than when the world is in the grip of a pandemic. Access to critical health and financial support is dependent on identity. This, in turn, relies on the ability to easily and securely share citizen data between foundational and sectoral IT systems. This message is all too easily lost.”
“The community has been focusing on developing an interoperability framework that makes it easy to create connections and share information within the context of a heterogeneous identity ecosystem that cannot be dominated by any player. Because nothing matters more than the outcome. And in the identity space, that outcome is making it easy for people to prove who they are and giving them access to the services they need.” said Philippe Barreau, Chair of the Board of Secure Identity alliance.
“Interoperability is a key aspect for state-of-the-art national digital identity systems. At a stroke, interoperability eliminates proprietary barriers, breaks down information silos, drives innovation and maximizes investment in existing digital infrastructures.” said Debora Comparin, Chair of the OSIA Initiative.
“We’re seeing an explosion in the use of APIs across many industry sectors (Telecoms, Banking etc.) So, why not widely adopt this approach in identity?” she added.
Officially launched mid-2018, following a holistic approach to legal identity, the community has developed a set of APIs to connect the various components of a sovereign identity management system: enrolment, civil registry, population registry, biometric engine (ABIS), Unique Identity Number (UIN) management, physical and digital credentials management, digital ID third party services.
V5.0.0 of the specification is now available on Github.
The development of a test plan has now been kicked off in partnership with FIME. FIME’s experts are building a test strategy & corresponding test plan to validate vendor implementations against OSIA’s specification.
In 2021, SIA will announce the certification process.
For more information or if you would like to join the initiative, contact us at
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Note to Editors:
About the Secure Identity Alliance
Secure Identity Alliance is dedicated to supporting the provision of legal, trusted identity for all, and to drive the development of inclusive digital services necessary for sustainable, worldwide economic growth and prosperity.
We believe legal, trusted identity is the cornerstone of rights protection, social inclusion and digital economic development - and the access point to a wide range of essential public and private services.
We bring together public, private and non-government organizations to foster international collaboration on the issues of legal and digital identity, to help shaping policy and to provide technical and implementation guidance for identity systems.
Its Board Members are IDEMIA, IN Groupe, Thales and Veridos.
For more information on the Secure Identity Alliance, visit: www.secureidentityalliance.org.
Follow us on Twitter at @secureidentity1
Press Contact: Stéphanie de Labriolle