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Good practice Imported

Digital Bank ID Card Pilot — Village-Chief-Vouched Biometric Identity for Unbanked Farmers in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea · Wewak · See the Papua New Guinea profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 39% 76/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

In Wewak and Maprik, East Sepik Province, a tablet-based biometric ID pilot let village chiefs vouch for undocumented residents, enrolling 2,548 people — 47% women — and opening bank accounts on the spot without internet or electricity.

2,548
People enrolled (Dec 2022 - Mar 2023)
47 %
Share of enrollees who were women (Dec 2022 - Mar 2023)
Digital Bank ID Card Pilot — Village-Chief-Vouched Biometric Identity for Unbanked Farmers in Papua New Guinea

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG), with Digizen, MiBank and Mama Bank, supported by the Asian Development Bank
Period
December 2022 – March 2023
Keywords
financial inclusion, digital identity, biometrics, rural development

Context

The Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG), working with technology provider Digizen and executing banks MiBank and Mama Bank, piloted a Digital Bank ID Card between December 2022 and March 2023 in villages around Wewak and Maprik, East Sepik Province -- an area with poor connectivity and limited electricity.

Activities

Field agents used a tablet with a camera and fingerprint reader to capture each resident's photo, fingerprints and identity details, issuing a near-field-communication (NFC) smart card on the spot. Where a person lacked official documentation, a recognised local vouching authority -- such as a village chief already holding a card and PIN -- could digitally co-sign to confirm their identity, cutting verification from months to minutes.

Results

The pilot enrolled 2,548 subsistence farmers and small traders, 47% of them women, most of whom had never held a bank account, and enrolled residents could open bank accounts immediately. Documented institutional outputs included an electronic Know-Your-Customer (e-KYC) framework and BPNG's first regulatory sandbox in the Pacific region.

Conclusions

The Asian Development Bank, which backed the pilot, has not published longer-term data confirming enrollees' continued account activity beyond the trial period.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Backed by the Asian Development Bank; specific pilot budget not publicly reported.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Ran December 2022 to March 2023 as a fixed-duration pilot in Wewak and Maprik, East Sepik Province.
Staffing & skills
Field agents operating biometric-enrolment tablets, BPNG regulatory team (sandbox), Digizen technology provider, MiBank and Mama Bank as executing banks

Conditions for success

  • Offline-capable tablet biometric enrolment for low-connectivity areas
  • A recognised local vouching authority (e.g. a village chief) to confirm identity for undocumented residents
  • A regulatory sandbox enabling rapid piloting of a new e-KYC approach

Common failure modes

  • Fixed 3-month pilot with no published evidence of nationwide rollout or continued account activity among enrollees since

Where it fits

Governance type
central bank and commercial banks partnership
Scale
pilot, two towns in one province
Income level
lower-middle-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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