Ghana’s technology regulator will consult the market on Thursday on plans for a national digital document wallet operated by competing private providers.
The National Information Technology Agency (NITA) has scheduled a virtual Early Market Engagement session on the proposed Ghana Electronic Document Wallet (GEDW) for June 25 at 10:00 GMT. NITA is the agency responsible for implementing Ghana’s IT policies, established under Act 771 of 2008 as the ICT policy implementing arm of the Ministry of Communications.
The concept note published by NITA draws a contrast with India’s DigiLocker and signals that Ghana will adopt a different design: independent, accredited Electronic Wallet Service Providers (EWSPs) will operate the wallets commercially under NITA’s regulatory and technical standards, creating a market of competing providers rather than a single state-run platform. Under the design, wallets will not hold copies of official documents. Instead they will store only metadata and secure links, with documents retrieved on demand directly from the institutions that issued them.
Citizens, businesses and government agencies would use the ecosystem to receive, store, share and verify official digital records, covering everything from academic certificates to licences and government-issued permits, without needing physical copies. Authorised bodies such as government departments and educational institutions would connect as document issuers, while companies and service providers seeking to confirm credentials would access them as requesters within the same framework.
Thursday’s session will give participants an overview of the project’s proposed architecture, implementation strategy and regulatory framework. NITA said the engagement is designed to gather feedback and allow the market to shape the design before the project moves to procurement.
The agency added that private sector involvement is critical to ensuring the GEDW meets international standards for security, interoperability and user trust. Insights from the session will feed into the next phases of the project’s development.
Stakeholders interested in participating can access details and the NITA concept note at nita.gov.gh.
Source : www.newsghana.com.gh
