A little over 24,000 people were onboarded on the Bhutan National Digital Identity, or NDI app almost four months after the launch of the app, last year. Bhutan NDI is a mobile application, where the user’s authenticated digital credentials will be stored. The Bhutan NDI team and the GovTech Agency have identified biometric verification as one of the common challenges faced by the users.
The Bhutan NDI team clarified that there is a widespread misconception that the National Digital Identity can be used to access all government services.
According to the Bhutan NDI team, the system will serve as a digital wallet where agencies can authenticate individuals’ information while availing services.
“For instance, if you want to avail of G2C service when you use the Bhutan NDI app, Bhutan NDI offers services like passwordless logins. You don’t have to enter your username and password in the G2C service. Since your data is already in Bhutan NDI, procedures to avail of the services will change but the service platform will remain how it was,” said Kinzang Dorji, Backend Developer, Bhutan NDI Project.
According to the GovTech Agency, only 24,000 people registered on the app in almost four months is concerning. The agency acknowledged that the lesser number of registrations could be due to difficulties in verifying biometric data. However, the agency explained that biometric authentication procedures have been scrutinised to make the wallet more secure so that its benefits are not compromised.
“I think you must have experienced that you need to tilt your head up and down. This is fundamentally checking if the person onboarding is alive or not and before that we put some data which determines whether you are a citizen or not,” said Lobzang Jamtsho, Chief ICT Officer, GovTech Agency.
The Bhutan NDI app for now has features such as passwordless logins to the G2C portal, RBP’s security clearance system, and property tax system. It also has storage of verifiable mobile numbers from TashiCell, storage of academic credentials from the Royal University of Bhutan, and storage of employee credentials from Druk Holding and Investments.
Samten Dolkar
Edited by Phub Gyem
