Benin’s DPI roadmap aims to end siloed digital government

Benin is developing a digital public infrastructure (DPI) roadmap to connect fragmented government systems, allowing citizens to access public services without repeatedly submitting the same identity documents.

A workshop in this regard took place recently in the capital Cotonou, organized by the Information Systems and Digital Agency (ASIN), the government body spearheading the initiative, in collaboration with Digital Impact Alliance.

The reflections brought together government officials, industry experts such as the Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure (CDPI), representatives of development partners as well as other important stakeholders in the country’s digital transformation journey.

The idea of the initiative is to construct a unified system through which citizens can access public services without having to resubmit identity documents already held by one or more public institutions.

According to ASIN’s Director General, Marc-André Loko, the roadmap will make public service delivery not only secure, but seamless and convenient.

The move seeks to address a problem which President Romuald Wadagni raised about the country’s public administration when he took over, vowing to eliminate bureaucratic bottlenecks and red tape. The measure also aligns with the country’s “once-only” principle which states that government institutions do not need to request the same documents from users multiple times while accessing public services.

Benin is seeing a steady rise in digital adoption with more than 75 percent of all public services accessed last year through digital channels. However, the DPI roadmap is expected to further drive digital adoption.

These efforts come as many countries are increasingly seeking strategic alignment of their DPI with the national and even regional development goals they intend to achieve.

Over the years, Benin has been strengthening its national identity system which it says is the base of its DPI implementation plan. It is also planning a digital wallet in a move which it believes will expand identity coverage, as the nation is nearing universal identity coverage with 99 percent of citizens enrolled in the biometric ID database.

In May, the country joined the 50-in-5 campaign, which is a Global South initiative intended to support 50 countries build to completion at least one component of DPI with security, inclusivity and interoperability at the core.

Benin also has the Smart Gouv initiative which has been in execution since 2022 with the goal of simplifying how public services are delivered nationwide.

Other African countries like South Africa, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo also have DPI roadmaps designed to revolutionize how their citizens access services in the public and private sectors.

Article Topics

Africa  |  Benin  |  biometrics  |  data exchange platform  |  digital government  |  digital public infrastructure  |  WURI