Unisys wins biometric ID card contract in Angola

Unisys Corporation has announced that DGM-Sistemas Lda, an Angola-based information technology company, has awarded a three-year contract, valued at approximately $22 million, to Unisys Portugal to help develop and roll out a new citizen ID card program for the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Angola (Civil and Criminal Identification and Archiving Department).

Unisys will provide a secure biometric ID card with automated fingerprint identification capabilities. Unisys will also modernize the department’s existing Criminal Justice Registry system, using Microsoft .NET and CRM frameworks.

Unisys says it will create a centralized citizen registry capable of recording demographic details, digital photographs, digital signatures and fingerprint scans captured at fixed and mobile stations. Around three million records with existing biographic information will be migrated to the new application.

The new solution will be based on the Unisys Registry and Positive Identification Solutions framework (RAPIDS), which captures biographic and biometric data in real-time, allowing for immediate checks on a person’s identity.

Optical card technology built into the system will be provided by Lasercard.

Unisys will also be responsible for creating the solution that will configure and manage the servers, workstations, networking and security in the Ministry’s central data centre and disaster recovery site.

Unisys established a working relationship with DGM, having worked collaboratively on a similar electronic ID framework for the Angolan Social Security Ministry, awarded in 2006.