The World Bank mission team consists of Mr. Jerome Bezzina (Senior Digital Specialist), and MS. Anna Metz (Senior Digital Specialist) Co task team leaders visited the Maldives from 19th to 23rd of October 2025. This supervisory mission also consisted of conducting the midterm review of the project.

The team held separate meetings with the stakeholders as well as the kickoff 19th October and wrap-up meetings on 23rd October 2025, at the Ministry of Finance

MS. Anna Metz lead the meeting for the World Bank mission team for the kickoff at the Ministry of Finance and Planning.

Mr. Mohamed Yammai (Chief Resource Mobilization Executive), Ms. Mariyam Hamdha (Assistant Resource Mobilization Executive), Ms. Aminath Shazra Moosa (Resource Mobilization Executive) participated from the Ministry of Finance and Planning.

Dr. Mohamed Kinaanath (Minister of State for Homeland Security and Technology) represented the National Centre for Information Technology (NCIT), Mr. Ilyas Ahmed (Chief Executive) represented the Communications Authority of Maldives (CAM) and Mr. Mohamed Umar (Director -ICT) represented the Department of National Registration (DNR).

Dr. Ibrahim Waheed (Project Manager), Mr. Ahmed Haleem (Communications Specialist), and Ms. Fathimah Shafa Hussain (Project Officer) from the D’MADD project team joined the meeting.

During the opening kick-off meeting, one of the key issues highlighted by PMU was the delayed introduction of the personal data protection bill to the parliament. The introduction of the bill is a disbursement condition for release of funds for both the NCIT and the Department of National Registrations.

Dr. Kinaanath, briefed on the digital agenda of the government and iterated that the bill on data privacy will be submitted to the parliament during the month of November. Dr. Waheed added that the urgency of the bill has been communicated to the Attorney General’s office as well.

The mission team noted on the successful delivery of initial activities by the PMU, notably the system requirement specification documentation for an improved CRVSID system for the DNR, Digital Identity Bill and the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan and framework for the NCIT.

The mission team inquired on the government stand on the introduction of the smart card for the national identity. A clear direction was not finalized on the matter. DNR suggested to utilize the funds for the development of a full-fledged CRVSID for the government and build infrastructure capacity to provide reliable services such as the e-Faas digital identity. Additionally, they also proposed to get funding and technical assistance to develop a comprehensive CRVSID law that clearly defines roles and responsibilities of multiple organizations that contribute to maintain a national registry.

Chief Executive of CAM expressed satisfaction with the services provided to CAM. According to him, the stakeholder consultation session well as the technical capacity building workshop on the regulatory framework for broadband markets was completed successfully and now, they are working on the procurement stage of quality-of-service monitoring equipment for mobile internet service.

The meeting was concluded with agreement to prepare for the next stages based on the outcome of the submission of the data privacy bill to the parliament and prepare for alternative actions if the government fails to do within the time frame to achieve the goals before the conclusion of the project.