The Gates Foundation is reportedly working to aid in the development of digital ID.
The information comes from Michael Weigand, the director of Financial Services for the Poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In a push toward “financial inclusion,” Weigand called for “digital public infrastructure (DPI).”
“This concept (…) underpins inclusive financial systems. Foundational DPI is based on three core, interoperable components: digital identity (ID), payments and data exchange. In practice, this gives countries and people the ability to digitally verify identities, securely and instantly send and receive money, and safely exchange information,” he wrote in The Banker.
“Financial inclusion” is advertised as equity within banking systems, supposedly designed to combat poverty.
The payment-processing company, Mastercard, is looking to register 15 million people in Africa for digital IDs and financial inclusion by 2027 under the program called Community Pass.”
Citizens of Ghana and Ethiopia are expected to follow the financial inclusion program after Africa.
Reporting from Reclaim the Net:
But don’t expect those behind the effort, juggernauts like Mastercard or the (Bill) Gates Foundation, to ever spell it out in those stark terms. After all, it’s genuine concern for other humans, equity, equality, and kindness that’s been behind the billions, if not trillions of dollars they have amassed thus far, right? ... “Stakeholders” they call themselves – self-appointed though, and their goal – other than, ostensibly, to keep the “global south” in check – is to make sure that digital public infrastructure projects, “including digital IDs,” get as much traction as possible in developing countries (first).
