DGM-Sistemas Lda, an Angola-based IT company, has awarded a three-year contract to Unisys Corporation to help develop and roll out a new citizen ID card program for the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Angola.

The deal, valued at approximately $22 million, will see Unisys companies develop the back-end systems and biometric ID cards for over 20 million Angolan citizens by 2015.

The aim of the card programme is to reduce fraud and modernise the Ministry’s Criminal Registry.

Unisys will create a centralized citizen registry capable of recording demographic details, digital photographs, digital signatures and fingerprint scans captured at fixed and mobile stations. Around three million records with existing biographic information will be migrated to the new application.