The government has decided to procure 10 million Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) units from the French firm IN Groupe, the parent company of IDEMIA, for the Department of National Identity and Civil Registration without competitive bidding.

The Balendra Shah-led Cabinet, in its June 12 meeting, decided to procure the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) through a government-to-government agreement and direct purchase from the French company, based on a proposal submitted by the Department of National ID and Civil Registration under the Ministry of Home Affairs. As per the Cabinet decision, out of the 10 million units, 1.5 million will be procured directly from the company and the rest of the ABIS units will come under a government-to-government deal.

The licence for the ABIS system is about to expire, with the NID having a stock of over some thousands of biometric identification systems in its vault.

Previously, the department purchased ABIS licences from Safran, a private French company. With the licences sold by IDEMIA close to expiry, the department is preparing to procure them from IN Groupe, the parent company of Safran and IDEMIA.

IDEMIA has been providing passports to Nepal since 2010. Safran Identity, which earlier supplied the ABIS system to the department, has been taken over by the IN Groupe.

“After the Cabinet decision, the home ministry has formed a negotiation team to deal with the IN Groupe,” Krishna Poudel, director general at the department, told the Post. The cost of each ABIS would be equal to what the department had proposed, he said.

An ABIS licence is a software authorisation contract that allows governments or organisations to store, process, and match specific quantities of biometric records—such as fingerprints, face images, and iris scans. These licences typically set hard caps on total database size (number of enrolled applicants) and concurrent system users. Since almost all government services are linked with national identity cards, the ABIS is an important component of the national identity card. The Department of Passports has been using the biometrics of the NID while preparing passports for service seekers.

“The price of the ABIS system will be finalised after the negotiation team concludes discussions and reaches an agreement,” Poudel said. “We have already communicated our decision to the company.”

According to the proposal, the government in March 2019 decided to expand the system’s capacity by procuring an additional 10 million ABIS licenses under the authority granted by a Cabinet decision dated March 25, 2019. The expansion was intended to enable the registration of up to 30 million citizens.

The department said the proposed cost for each ABIS licence is 0.0995 Euros, the same price offered by the supplier in 2019, and that the Rastriya Swatantra Party government is proceeding with procurement at that rate.

“Since the ABIS system licence has already expired, the Department of National Identity and Civil Registration has been facing operational difficulties,” said another official. “As service seekers have been repeatedly experiencing problems, the government decided to procure the system in a government-to-government arrangement.”

A month ago, a meeting of senior government officials, including the sitting chief secretary, decided to proceed with an immediate procurement of the ABIS system, according to an official.

The meeting was held to fulfil the requirements of Clause 3 of the Public Procurement Act and Article 41, which allow direct procurement under given circumstances.

The government first launched the National Identity Card (NID) programme as a pilot in Panchthar district and among employees working at Singha Durbar in 2009.

IDEMIA, the company that supplied the system, is also the same company that printed Nepal’s passports for nearly 16 years. IDEMIA had three divisions, one of which—Smart Identity—was sold to IN Groupe in 2025. The Department of National Identity and Civil Registration says it is preparing to purchase additional ABIS licences from IN Groupe because the division responsible for Nepal’s ABIS licences was transferred to the French company.

However, officials have not provided a clear justification for opting for direct procurement.

Article 41 of the Public Procurement Act allows direct procurement, among other conditions, when only one supplier has the technical capacity to meet procurement requirements; when only one supplier has exclusive rights to provide the goods and no suitable alternative is available; or when additional proprietary goods or services must be procured from an existing supplier to maintain compatibility with existing systems.