Travellers moving between Benin, Ghana and Rwanda could eventually benefit from faster identity verification under a new initiative that is preparing to test connections between the three countries’ national digital identity systems.
The pilot, developed through Smart Africa’s Data Exchange platform, is designed to allow participating countries to verify national identity credentials issued by one another without replacing their separate national systems.
Smart Africa announced on October 19 that Benin, Ghana and Rwanda had connected their identity platforms and were moving towards real-world testing. The organisation has not announced when the trials will begin.
The proposed tests include identity verification for air travel between Benin and Rwanda and at land-border crossings between Ghana and Benin.
If the system proves effective, it could provide a basis for participating authorities to verify travellers’ identity credentials across borders using trusted digital connections. The initiative could also support wider cooperation in areas such as work, education and access to public services.
The project operates under the Smart Africa Trust Alliance (SATA), which promotes cooperation on digital identity and personal data exchange while preserving participating countries’ control over their national systems.
Unlike a common regional identity card, the initiative seeks to establish trust between existing national identity platforms. Each country would retain its own system while using agreed technical arrangements to verify credentials issued by its partners.
Representatives from Benin, Ghana and Rwanda met in Kigali earlier this year to assess the requirements for connecting their systems. The discussions covered infrastructure integration, digital certificate trust arrangements and the interfaces used to exchange verification requests.
The technical teams also examined how requests would be handled and how responsibility for technical failures and incidents would be assigned.
The initiative comes amid wider efforts across Africa to make digital identity systems interoperable and reduce barriers to cross-border services and trade.
In West Africa, governments have also been working towards greater acceptance of regional biometric identity credentials at borders. The Smart Africa approach differs by seeking interoperability between separate national systems rather than relying solely on mutual recognition of a single regional credential.
For travellers, however, the potential benefits remain prospective. The planned tests will need to establish whether the connections can verify identities reliably and securely in real-world conditions before broader implementation can be considered.
Smart Africa has described the move towards testing as a milestone in cross-border digital identity cooperation, but no live-testing date or wider rollout timetable has been announced.
