Biometric Update (2024) News article / media

Ethiopia begins issuing refugees digital ID cards to facilitate service access

Biometric Update

Ref: SRC-004-ETH-003

https://www.biometricupdate.com/202403/ethiopia-begins-issuing-refugees-digital-id-cards-to-facilitate-service-access

Accessed: 3/23/2026

Summary

Reports on Ethiopia's pilot distributing Fayda digital ID cards to 77,000 refugees in Addis Ababa under UNHCR's PING PRIMES Interoperability Gateway, with plans to expand to one million individuals and include 814,000 refugees in the national ID database.

View Harvard reference

Biometric Update (2024). Ethiopia begins issuing refugees digital ID cards to facilitate service access. Biometric Update, March 2024. Available at: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202403/ethiopia-begins-issuing-refugees-digital-id-cards-to-facilitate-service-access (Accessed 23 Mar 2026).

Linked Cases (1)

ETH-003 ETH Operational Deployment (Limited Rollout)

Refugee assistance biometric authentication at distributions (UNHCR PRIMES: BIMS + Global Distribution Tool)

Social assistance Deep learning