A 10-year Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract has been signed with the General Delegation for National Security (GDNS) in Yaoundé, Cameroon between HE Martin Mbarga Nguele – the Delegate General for National Security, and Labinot Carreti – CEO of AUGENTIC on behalf of the German-Portuguese consortium.
Martin Mbarga Nguele said: ‘we express our gratitude to the Head of State for his approval of this strategic project. With this project, the problems we face today will only be distant memories because everything will be done online and fast. We thank this investment of AUGENTIC-INCM, which allows us to be among countries with one of the most modern biometric passport solutions in the world.’
The project includes three main phases, financed fully by the AUGENTIC-INCM partnership:
Build phase
- The building of a secure passport personalisation and citizen enrolment center in Yaoundé;
- Construction of a modern citizen enrolment centre in Douala;
- Renovation or construction of eight other regional enrolment offices;
- Setting up a cashless citizen payment system for passport fees;
- Setting up a state-of-the-art IT database, PKI, ABIS, data management, enrolment and personalisation solution for biometric passport with polycarbonate datapage based on ICAO standards;
- Setting up an additional enrolment centre for diplomatic passports in the Ministry of External Relations and enrolment centre for service passports at the GDNS;
- Setting up enrolment infrastructure in embassies and consulates of Cameroon and their connection with the data centre in Yaoundé;
- Training of the operators and engineers across the country.
Operation phase
- Operation of the project by the consortium through the creation of new high-technology jobs in Cameroon;
- Setting up a logistics system to allow issuance of the biometric passports in the country within 48 hours;
- For Cameroonian citizens living outside the country, the consortium will make the personalised passports available for dispatch to the Ministry of External Relations within 48 hours after application;
- Monthly reporting and statistics system for GDNS;
- VIP service at the Yaoundé office.
Transfer phase
- Before the transfer of the full infrastructure to the GDNS at the end of the 10-year contract, AUGENTIC will renew the entire solution.
Labinot Carreti, AUGENTIC CEO, said: ‘the partnership with INCM allowed us to mobilise one of the biggest investments in the history of Cameroon in the domain of identity documents. The strategy of our company is to support governments in their path of digitisation of identity infrastructure.’
