Kenya is implementing effective mechanisms to replace the issuance of paper degrees with a digital Verifiable Credential, which it says can be securely authenticated using a digital system.
William Gitau, cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Information, Communications, and the Digital Economy, officially opened the Stakeholders Workshop for Verifiable Credentials yesterday.
Stakeholders from the Ministry of Information, Communications, and the Digital Economy, the Ministry of Education, and the Tony Blair Institute, among others, are establishing a shared understanding of Verifiable Credentials and digital wallets.
He said: “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.”
Gitau went on to say 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.
According to Gitau, 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 added: “The successful implementation of this process will pave the way for rolling out Verifiable Credentials across Africa.”
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