Tanzania will change its driving licence system from paper to smart card, a senior official of the Tanzania Revenue Authority has said.

Electronic chip-based licences will include several forgery-proof security features including water marks and finger-prints.

The move is aimed at reducing the rate of road crashes apart form curbing forgery and corruption, according to The EastAfrican.

The country has an estimated one million driving licences issued to motorists, for which TRA will create an electronic database to avoid the double allocation of serial numbers as well as to monitor drivers.

Austria Card will produce the licence in the smart-card format and South Africa’s Face Technologies will carry out the system integration.

According to WHO ‘s Global Status report on road safety, 34 of every 100,000 people were killed on the Tanzania roads in 2007.