Ethiopia National ID Program Seeks Fayda Pass Owner Consultant

Request for Expression of Interest (Consulting Services – Individual Selection) Fayda Pass Owner for the National ID Program Country: Ethiopia Project: Ethiopia Digital ID for Inclusion and Services Project Project ID: P179040 Assignment Title: Fayda Pass Owner for the National ID Program Reference No.: ET-NIDP-524662-CS-INDV Duty Station: NIDP Head Office, Addis Ababa The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ministry of Finance (MoF), has received financing from the World Bank toward the cost of the Ethiopia Digital ID for Inclusion and Services Project. National ID Program, the ultimate project implementer intends to apply part of the proceeds for selecting of individual consultants. National ID Program as part of the project implementation program is looking Fayda Pass Owner that supports the NIDP. Experienced experts who have experience, passionate and innovative ideas for the position are invited to express their interest for the assignment. The Fayda Pass Owner will play a crucial role in supporting Senior Product Owner and the overall services for the National ID Program in Ethiopia. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including software engineers, designers, data analysts, and government stakeholders to deliver high-quality and user-centric solutions. The Fayda Pass Owner acts as the strategic architect and orchestrator of the trust ecosystem, bridging the gap between complex cryptographic infrastructure and seamless service delivery for Holders, Issuers, and Verifiers. S/he is responsible for ensuring key service and integration components are productized. This includes the technical integration layer such as the PKI-driven tools and SDKs to be deployed (reused) within partner environments (issuers as well as verifiers). The product environment must ensure that sensitive credentials like Digital IDs and Financial Accounts are issued securely via HSMs and verified instantly across the platform. Ultimately, the role is to balance rigorous regulatory compliance and security with a frictionless user experience, transforming a complex decentralized credential ecosystem into a scalable, interoperable, and daily-use framework and utility. Specific responsibilities for the Fayda Pass Owner will include, but are not limited to, the following core activities:

• Translate complex cryptographic requirements (like PKI certificate lifecycles and mTLS handshakes) into seamless business workflows for NIDP’s institutional partners.
• Make-sure that integration partner services have a smooth and simple as possible utilizing the current toolkit (Lightweight Org Agent), making it a repeatable, self-service experience that reduces the time-to-market for new partners (e.g., getting a new Bank live in a few days instead of weeks).
• Ensure that the platform and service remains the "Gold Standard" for compliance, ensuring our credentials are accepted throughout the country and across borders. Closely following evolving global standards such W3C, eIDAS, ISO, DIDComm, OIDC4* and other important to the platform.
• Maintain the brand integrity of Fayda Pass as the custodian of the platform’s security posture, managing the roadmap for key rotation, revocation registries, and data privacy features.
• Comfortably manage the variation in the two extremes (the technical depth and the user experience). There are instances where the product owner may be discussing Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) in the morning and End-User UX in the afternoon.
• Ensure the "Trust Triangle" functions seamlessly as a decentralized but unified ecosystem:
• (For the Issuer) - manage the APIs and SDKs that allow the issuer organization to securely publish credentials into the wallet.
• (For the Holder / End-User) - oversee the mobile/web interface where users store, manage, and share their data with privacy-preserving features (like Zero-Knowledge Proofs).
• (For the Verifier ) - manage the verification gateways that allow third parties (like a border agent) to instantly validate a credential without seeing unnecessary private data.
• Take responsibility for the roadmap that takes the wallet from a simple credential storage tool to a daily utility. This Includes the following key aspects:
• Onboarding: Designing frictionless flows for users to claim their first ID or link a bank account.
• Expansion: Identifying new use cases (e.g., adding "Academic Document" or "Health Record" credentials).
• Monetization: suggesting a reasonable cost-per-verification or subscription model for enterprise Verifiers.
• Reliability: Monitoring platform uptime and the performance of the underlying data and trust chain.

National ID Program, Digital ID for Inclusion and Services Project now invites eligible Individual Experts to indicate their interest to provide the Services. Interested Experts should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the services for a period of one year with possibility of extension for additional period subject to outstanding performance of the consultant and availability of budget. The shortlisting criteria include the following; The ideal candidate for the role of Fayda Pass Owner will bring the following competencies and skills:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• Minimum of 5+ years in Product Management or Technical Project Management, with a proven track record of defining, launching, and scaling complex digital services.
• Experience managing product oriented projects such as enterprise software systems that involve multiple external stakeholders (e.g., B2B2C models).
• Proficiency in translating high-level policy goals or business objectives into a phased technical backlog and a 12-month product vision.
• Ability to manage a "multi-sided market" (such as Issuers, Holders, and Verifiers in the case of Wallets), balancing the conflicting needs of institutional partners with the ease of use for citizens.
• Experience in "productizing" technical tools, specifically overseeing the delivery of APIs, SDKs, or on premise connectors that allow external partners to integrate with a central platform efficiently.
• A solid understanding of secure system design, including identity management (IAM), data encryption, and "Privacy-by-Design" principles.
• Ability to act as a bridge between high-level institutional partners and deep-tier engineering teams, translating complex requirements into seamless business workflows.
• Experience collaborating with UI/UX teams to simplify high-security actions (such as digital signing or identity recovery) into intuitive, frictionless experiences for the general public.
• General familiarity with (or a strong appetite to learn) global standards such as W3C Verifiable Credentials, ISO standards, and regional data protection frameworks.
• Strong grasp of the full agile SDLC, including requirements gathering, user stories, and managing large-scale User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
• Ability to collaborate with designers to make complex security actions (like key recovery or biometric signing) feel intuitive and frictionless for the everyday citizen.
• Entrepreneurial skills with a proactive approach to identifying new use cases (Education, Health, Finance) to increase the platform's utility and daily adoption.

The selection method is based on para 7.36 and 7.37 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulation. The attention of interested individual is drawn to Section III, paragraphs, 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s “Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers” 6th edition Revised February 2025 (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest. An individual will be selected in accordance with the Selection of Individual Consultant (Section V) method set out in the Procurement Regulations. Expressions of interest (CV, cover letter and documentary evidence for fulfilling the qualifications) must be delivered in a written form to the address below by E-mail on or before February 13th, 2026. Further information can be obtained, by email at the below address during office hours from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM Addis Ababa time: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, National ID Program (NIDP) Digital ID for Inclusion and Services Project Attn: Project Management Unit (PMU), Address: Welosefer Bole, Ethio-China St, INSA Building, 15th Floor, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Tele- +251-911-446582 or +251-912-200295 E-mail: zelalem@id.gov.et or nejmedin@id.et Website: https://id.gov.et/ Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Agency: Prime Minster Office, National ID Program Procurement method: Individual Consultant Selection Notice type: Request for Expression of Interest Status: Published Value: 54000.0 USD