Government is establishing effective mechanisms of replacing issuance of paper degrees with a Digital Verifiable Credential

The Government of Kenya is establishing effective mechanisms of replacing issuance of paper degrees with a Digital Verifiable Credential, which can be securely authenticated using a digital system.

Earlier today, The Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy (MICDE) H.E. Hon. William Kabogo Gitau officially opened the Stakeholders Workshop for Verifiable Credentials where stakeholders from MICDE, Ministry of Education and Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) amongst other key players are establishing shared understanding of Verifiable Credentials and digital wallets.

The Stakeholders are exploring real world use cases of Verifiable Credentials and digital wallets for adoption of best practices.

They are also aligning a roadmap for identifying key stakeholders that will spearhead the proof of concept process that will guide on the implementation of the Verifiable Credentials countrywide.

In his address, CS Kabogo said that Implementing Verifiable Credentials

addresses risk factors directly impacting Kenya’s labour market such as incurring costs due to Paper certificate issuance and delay in issuance of certificates by various institutions due to manual checks.

The CS reiterated that Verifiable Credentials will be instrumental in safeguarding privacy and security of data, restoring integrity, faster issuance and verification of academic credentials, transparency and fairness in the digital and education ecosystem.

He pointed out that successful implementation of this process will pave the way for rolling out Verifiable Credentials across Africa.

In attendance were Secretary ICT, E-Government and Digital Economy, Mary Kerema, Enterprise Architect, TBI, Andrew Ferrier, Senior Advisor TBI, Michael Viano, Digital E-Government Advisor TBI, Charles Kinyeki and representatives from the Ministry of Education.