Côte d'Ivoire's ONECI: A Pioneering Adoption of the Visible Digital Seal
When a country decides to make the Visible Digital Seal (known in French as the Cachet Électronique Visible, or CEV) a cornerstone of its digital transformation, the impact goes far beyond technology — it reshapes how citizens interact with their government. Côte d'Ivoire, through its national identity office ONECI (Office National de l'État Civil et de l'Identification), offers one of the most compelling real-world case studies of large-scale CEV deployment.
The Context: Fighting Document Fraud
Document fraud is a persistent challenge across West Africa. Forged birth certificates, counterfeit nationality certificates, and falsified judicial documents undermine public trust and create security risks. Traditional paper-based stamps and wet signatures offer limited protection — they are easy to replicate and impossible to verify remotely.
The Ivorian government identified this vulnerability and tasked ONECI with developing a technological solution that would:
Guarantee the authenticity of official documents — both paper and digital.
Allow instant verification by any citizen, institution, or administration.
Work offline, given the connectivity challenges in parts of the country.
Meet international standards, ensuring recognition beyond national borders.
The answer was the CEV.
What ONECI Has Deployed
CEV-Secured Documents
ONECI now secures official documents with a Cachet Électronique Visible — a cryptographically signed barcode printed on the document. This seal guarantees the origin and integrity of the document's key data, regardless of whether the document is in paper or digital form.
Every document generated through ONECI's platforms — from the Côte d'Ivoire Identité portal to the new e-Justice system — carries a CEV that can be verified anywhere in the world.
The VERIF by ONECI App
To make verification accessible to everyone, ONECI developed VERIF by ONECI, a free mobile application available on both the App Store and Google Play. The app allows:
Instant scanning of any CEV-secured document.
Offline verification — no live server query is needed; trust information is downloaded and cached on the device in advance, enabling verification without an active connection.
Clear pass/fail results — the user immediately knows whether the document is authentic or has been tampered with.
VERIF by ONECI is affiliated with the global trust network of the AIGCEV (Association Internationale pour la Gouvernance du CEV) — the French name of VDSIC — ensuring that Ivorian documents are recognised within the international VDS trust framework.
Identity Verification Terminals (TVI)
Beyond the mobile app, ONECI has deployed physical Identity Verification Terminals (TVI) in administrative offices, allowing agents to verify CEV-secured documents even without a smartphone.
The e-Justice Platform: A Landmark Project
On 30 January 2025, Côte d'Ivoire's Minister of Justice, Jean Sansan Kambilé, officially launched the e-Justice platform (www.e-justice.ci) at the Dabou court. This platform, developed by ONECI, represents a major step in the digitalisation of judicial services.
How It Works
Citizens in the pilot jurisdictions of Yopougon and Dabou can submit applications for nationality certificates online through the platform.
The application is processed digitally, with full electronic archiving.
The resulting certificate — available in both paper and digital formats — is secured with a CEV.
The certificate is delivered within 72 hours, down from the previous seven-day average.
Any administration or citizen can verify the document's authenticity using VERIF by ONECI.
Both the paper and digital versions carry the same legal value, offering citizens flexibility and international recognition.
Scale and Ambition
The e-Justice platform is designed to scale far beyond nationality certificates:
In the coming months, the project will be extended to additional jurisdictions across the country.
Up to 66 types of judicial documents will be progressively digitised and secured with CEV.
Future phases include the management of criminal records (casiers judiciaires).
As of September 2025, ONECI announced that only nationality certificates obtained online through the e-Justice platform will be accepted for national identity card applications — a decisive move that accelerates adoption and phases out vulnerable paper-based processes.
Why This Matters for the VDS Ecosystem
Côte d'Ivoire's deployment demonstrates several key principles that VDSIC advocates:
Standards-Based Interoperability
By aligning with the AIGCEV/VDSIC trust framework, ONECI ensures that its CEV-secured documents are verifiable not just within Côte d'Ivoire, but by any application connected to the global VDS trust network — including the Otentik Codes Reader.
Offline-First Design
Recognising that reliable internet access is not universal, ONECI built its verification chain to require no live server query during verification. Trust lists are downloaded and cached on the device in advance — a fundamental advantage of VDS technology and a key differentiator from database-dependent solutions.
Citizen Empowerment
By making the VERIF app free and accessible, ONECI puts the power of verification directly in citizens' hands. Anyone can check whether a document is genuine — no special equipment, no administrative procedure required.
Government-Scale Deployment
With millions of citizens and tens of thousands of documents issued daily, ONECI's deployment proves that VDS/CEV technology scales to national-level operations without compromising security or performance.
A Model for Africa and Beyond
Côte d'Ivoire's experience with ONECI and the CEV is increasingly cited as a model for other African nations seeking to modernise their civil status and identity systems. The combination of international standards, offline verification, and citizen-facing mobile tools addresses challenges that are common across the continent — and, indeed, across many developing economies worldwide.
VDSIC is proud to count ONECI among the organisations that are building the global trust environment for Visible Digital Seals.