Singapore’s National Digital Identity (NDI) platform serves as a digital infrastructure and trust platform that enables seamless data flows as well as interoperability between private and public services. As a Smart Nation strategic national project, the NDI ecosystem seeks to bring convenience to the everyday lives of citizens, catalyse industry in developing value-added services, and increase opportunities for government-citizen co-creation. As a universally trusted and secure key that enables personal and business data exchange through the explicit consent of individuals. NDI provides convenience to the everyday lives of citizens by removing the need for multiple online identities, passwords and physical tokens, while at the same time providing stronger security, confidentiality, and integrity. This will support digitisation and transformation of existing processes, which today still require physical presence or human-in-the-middle handling. NDI, the multi form-factor trust platform is a fundamental enabler behind Singapore’s digitalisation efforts and the new essential digital utility for Singapore current and future needs.

https://www.ndi-api.gov.sg/

• Singapore

• Youth
• Older persons
• Women
• Indigenous and nomadic peoples
• People with disabilities
• The unemployed
• The poor
• Migrants
• Refugees and internally displaced people
• Remote and rural communities

The identity and data platforms of NDI were initially set up for the public sector; however, we see the opportunity that they can also support private services and extend the benefits to citizens and customers alike. With a Digital Identity that is pervasive through the private and public sectors alike, we are working to build a society where people are digitally enabled and digitally confident. NDI helps to reduce the inefficiencies provided by current identity mechanisms and creates a truly seamless access and management of citizens’ data, identity, access and authorisation to services. Instead of an organization building its own login manager for its web and mobile services, they can use NDI’s login service. As such, NDI’s universal trust platform provides a convenient yet secure means for citizens to prove their identity online.

Having already built systems in place to facilitate the movement of data, we are now expanding across the boundaries of systems, organisations, sectors and even countries. With NDI as a cornerstone of the digital economy, our vision is to provide the digital infrastructure for a trusted data ecosystem, where citizens have access and are in control of what information they are sharing and with whom they are sharing the data with.

NDI has enabled organisations to go paperless with the seamless form filling with government verified data. We also support secure digital signatures that allow contracts and important documents to be signed without having the individual to appear in person. Our platform also allows and replaces the need for physical mail by delivering electronic notifications to individuals through our platform. Supporting our drive to be green and eco-friendly.
The high assurance identity that NDI provides enables individuals to prove their identity digitally without the need for physical face-to-face verifications. This increases efficiency for individuals and organisations.

The underlying principles of NDI are Security, Privacy, Interoperability, Resiliency, Inclusivity, and Trust. Together, they spell out our SPIRIT and our dedication to building citizen-centric products. We build our products with the intent to permeate through the silos of the public and private sector. For example, in setting up a company, it is not just about registering a company with the Government. It also involves setting up a bank account, having the right financing options, renting a property etc. Instead of aggregating functions or depending on the organisation delivering the services, we will organise our services based on the needs of the citizens. NDI can provide that basic universal identity, data mobility, authorisation and consent framework, which makes the bundling of services across organizations. Transactions, such as opening a bank account, applying a credit card/home loan and remitting money overseas, can be so much easier and instant. When enabling a citizen’s government verified data to flow between the public and private sectors, not only are customer journeys simplified, business productivity will increase through digitalisation enabled by NDI.