Registrar General Henry Machiri has said the Zimbabwean e-passport can now be read at border entry points around the world.
This comes after the southern African country joined and participated in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Public Key Directory (PKD) becoming the 84th country to do so.
ICAO PKD is a database established and maintained for the purposes of holding national cryptographic keys related to the authentication of electronic passport information.
Participation in the ICAO PKD will see the uploading of the public key data necessary for authentication of all electronic passports that are issued by a State. The Sunday Mail cites Machiri as saying:
I am pleased to inform the nation that the Zimbabwe e-passport is ICAO compliant, and Zimbabwe, on September 14, 2022, became the 84th member of the United Nations to be admitted to the ICAO Public Key Directory (PKD).
One of the key benefits of the ICAO PKD is that it supports processes of reading and verifying travel documents in an efficient and cost-effective manner,” read a statement issued after the recent feat.
This provides border control authorities with the assurance that travel documents are genuine and unaltered, which in turn authenticates the biometric information contained in e-passports and allows for automation of aspects of the border clearance process.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa launched e-passports on December 14 last year, and the country started issuing them on January 18 this year.