Estonian ICT company Cybernetica and the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) have successfully concluded a pilot project introducing wallet-based digital credential technology for education degree certificates in Kenya.
The initiative, conducted in collaboration with the University of Nairobi and Kenya’s Public Service Commission, demonstrates a new approach to combating credential fraud while advancing digital governance across the nation.
“The Kenyan Wallet project has been a valuable journey for Cybernetica. We’re proud to have delivered a secure, modern solution for education degree certificates with TBI. This experience has strengthened our confidence in Wallet technologies and their potential. We look forward to expanding use cases and scaling across borders,” said Sven Heiberg, Head of Digital Identity Technologies at Cybernetica.
Kenya confronts thousands of fake certificates with new verifiable credentials pilot
The pilot addresses a critical challenge facing Kenya’s civil service: an audit by the Public Service Commission uncovered over 2000 fake academic and professional certificates used to secure government positions. This widespread credential fraud undermines public trust, compromises service delivery, and provides unqualified individuals with unfair advantages in merit-based recruitment.
“We’re proud to have delivered a secure, modern solution for education degree certificates with TBI. This experience has strengthened our confidence in Wallet technologies and their potential. We look forward to expanding use cases and scaling across borders.”
Sven Heiberg, Head of Digital Identity Technologies at Cybernetica
TBI and Cybernetica developed two complementary digital tools: a user-controlled wallet for verifying, storing, and sharing verifiable credentials that can be authenticated in real time, and an accredited issuer portal allowing universities to issue academic credentials as cryptographically backed verifiable credentials. The solution leverages the decentralised W3C Digital Wallet and Verifiable Credential Model, complying with international standards.
Unlike centralised systems, this approach eliminates single points of failure, reduces reliance on sensitive government infrastructure, and removes the costs and delays associated with third-party verification processes. All this ensures there is no single database of credentials vulnerable to theft or hacking, significantly reducing security risks.
Cybernetica and TBI’s digital credential pilot shows high trust in Kenya
The pilot demonstrated user acceptance. All participants successfully downloaded the application and received digital credentials, with 93% able to display verification QR codes and 83% completing successful verification. User experience feedback was positive, with all participants finding the process easy to understand and 94% confident they could repeat it without assistance.
Trust in the system proved high, too, with 89% of participants comfortable with wider adoption and 83% reporting no privacy concerns. Participants also identified strong potential for extending the approach beyond academic credentials to areas such as national ID verification, driver’s licenses, and professional certifications.
The success of this pilot lays the foundation for scaling toward a trusted, lifelong skills and career infrastructure supporting Kenya’s public service and labour market. The initiative is explicitly aligned with the Kenya Trust Framework and Trust Registry being developed under the Ministry of ICT and the Digital Economy and the ICT Authority, ensuring that verifiable credentials capability evolves as part of Kenya’s broader digital public infrastructure.
Scaling is envisioned not as an immediate nationwide rollout, but as a progressive and controlled expansion in scope, institutions, and credential types, aligned with operational evidence, institutional readiness, and national governance priorities. At its core is a Skills and Credentials Wallet designed to interoperate with existing national digital assets, including National ID Wallets and Mobile Money platforms.
GOOD TO KNOW
Estonian ICT companies have helped to build the most advanced digital society in the world
- Estonian companies and the public sector have been building a fully digital society since the early 1990s.
- 8% is the ICT sector’s contribution to Estonia’s GDP. The annual growth rate of the Estonian ICT sector has been around 8% in recent years, outpacing the average EU growth rate of 5%. (Eurostat, 2022)
- Estonia ranks 10th globally in ICT services export as a percentage of total exports. (WTO, 2022)
- ICT services account for 30% of Estonia’s total services exports. (Bank of Estonia, 2022)
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