Inaugural OSIA Advisory Committee Brings Governments and Industry Together to Solve ID Interoperability

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Feb 10, 2020, 03:00 ET

PARIS, Feb. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Inaugural OSIA Advisory Committee meeting in November 2019 brought together private sector companies with senior government stakeholders from Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Uganda. Plans are now in place to accelerate the development and adoption of OSIA across Africa and beyond.

Launched by Secure Identity Alliance (SIA) in 2018, Open Standards Identity APIs (OSIA) is a global initiative aimed at solving the interoperability challenges within the identity sector.

By enabling seamless connectivity between all components of the identity management ecosystem, OSIA achieves interoperability among solutions from different vendors, levels the competitive playing field and enables the secure and controlled flow of data and services.

Sovereignty of technology/partner choice and ownership (and portability) of data when designing, deploying and enhancing national identity systems is critical.

Trusted partnerships with industry partners will remain an important part of building truly open, innovative and future-proofed national identity systems.

The following top priorities for the next 12 months were agreed:

Update and modify current specifications and use cases
Establish an OSIA certification program
Develop an appropriate contractual framework that focuses on assuring data portability, interoperability and seamless exit strategies

Engr. Aliyu Abubakar Aziz, Director General/CEO, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) of Nigeria and Chair of OSIA Advisory Committee, commented: "Irrespective of political, technical or cultural differences, all the governments represented on the OSIA Advisory Committee are focused on working with the industry to find a solution to the problems of interoperability and lock-in. In OSIA we believe we have found it, and we made tremendous progress.Our task is now to raise awareness of OSIA in our home markets to ensure government institutions understand its real-world benefits."

Philippe Barreau, Chair of the Secure Identity Alliance, commented: "This latest meeting, attended by 22 governments and private sector companies, illustrates the incredible momentum OSIA has generated since its launch. As we accelerate into 2020 and beyond, we will continue to have frank and open discussions between the industry and governments to ensure OSIA is continuously improved and implemented for a tangible impact on economies and citizens around the world."

Debora Comparin, Chair of the OSIA Working Group, added: " Back in 2018, we listened and understood the concerns of governments and set out to develop a simple solution based on the core principles of sovereignty, technical neutrality and privacy by design. With API connectivity, OSIA enables the creation of an open interoperable ID ecosystem built with data security and customer consent at its heart."

In addition to governments, the following private sector businesses are represented in the OSIA Workgroup: Coppernic, DERMALOG, Digitech, Gemalto – a Thales Company, Gravity, HID Global, IDEMIA, IN Groupe, Intercede, Laxton, Orange Veridos and VFS.

About OSIA

More information at www.osia.io

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 identity, to help shaping policy and to provide technical and implementation guidance for identity systems.

Its Board Members are Gemalto – a Thales Company, IDEMIA, IN Groupe and Veridos.

For more information on the Secure Identity Alliance, visit: www.secureidentityalliance.org .

Follow the Secure Identity Alliance at @secureidentity1

SOURCE Secure Identity Alliance