The new Tanzania e-Passport has been honoured with a major award at the High Security Printing conference in Europe.
The award win is part of the Tanzania e-Immigration program being widely recognised as one that is transforming the immigration system of this African nation. Tanzania moved from a traditional MRP booklet to a complete e-Immigration system – and it did it in record time. In just four months, Tanzania transitioned from awarding the contract to HID Global and its partners, Smurfit Kappa Security Concepts (previously DLRS Group Security Concepts), AG2 (security arm of Absolute Graphics) and Softnet, to completion.
Wil Byrne of AG2 was the lead designer on the project. The design of the booklet captures local themes and cultures across the visa pages, datapage and end papers, helping to generate a sense of national pride in the passport holder.
“This passport was a delight to design both from an aesthetic and technical perspective. We hoped to capture the richness of Tanzanian culture and put it on display alongside the magnificent wildlife for which the country is renowned” said Wil Byrne.
“The award for the Tanzanian e-Passport reflects on the team effort that it took from forward-thinking government officials to our partners, to our internal HID team. Tanzania’s e-Passport is being recognised as a breakthrough example of a next-generation citizen ID.” said Steve Warne, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Citizen ID business with HID Global.
“This award further endorses the quality of product provided by Smurfit Kappa Security Solutions,” added Tom O’Mahony, Managing Director of Smurfit Kappa Security Concepts.
“This award was also bestowed on the Irish Passport (2014) and Irish Passport Card (2016), both of which were provided by Smurfit Kappa Security Concepts in partnership with HID and AG2, and we are very proud to be part of the team that delivered this award-winning passport book to Tanzania.”
The country now has a single citizen identification system that spans the entire identity journey from data capture to issuance and can be used to support e-Passports, e-Visas, e-Permits and other physical electronic documents. The solution is also “future ready,” anticipating the requirements of the next generation of identities.
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