February 10, 2008	Sunday	Safar 02, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Feb 9: National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) will help the interior ministry of Sudan for the development and implementation of Sudan’s civil registration and identity system.

A formal agreement was signed between officials of Nadra and Kushite Integrated Company, a subsidiary of Sudan’s interior ministry at the authority’s headquarters here on Saturday. The four-month project envisages software development, monitoring and training.

Under the agreement, Nadra will provide identity cards to the citizens of Sudan. Apart from this, it will also provide a centralised and integrated state-of-the-art civil registration system backed by a highly sophisticated multi-biometric data warehouse.

The warehouse will be integrated with multiple internal and external interfaces, which records all events of births, marriages, divorces, deaths and family certificates.

Commenting on the deal, Nadra Chairman Salim Ahmad Moin said another international project bagged by the authority was testimony to the fact that the IDs-issuing body had gained worldwide recognition as an expert in the field of data acquisition, secure identity card production, data warehousing, networks, software development and integration.

He said at the domestic front, Nadra had registered over 92 million citizens and issued computerised national identity cards to more than 62 million adult citizens. Apart from the issuance of CNICs, the authority is striving to bring more and more CNIC centric projects to facilitate citizens in their daily affairs.

The Sudanese ambassador, Daffa Alla Elhag Ali Osman, expressed satisfaction over the agreement and said Nadra had become an international player in the field of information technology and ID documentation.

“It is a matter of great pride that such an organisation exists among the Muslim countries. With this deal, the brotherly relations between the two Muslim countries would be further strengthened,” the envoy said.